Fairy Tail Trance
by Catwho
Summary: A series of character sketches set to trance tunes. Traditional pairings. Not your usual song fics. Latest: Perfect love has cast away all of Levy and Gajeel's fears.
1. Natsu: Fire

**AN: Okay, I've always been fond of finding character "theme songs" in existing music. So I've been scavenging my favorite type of music (trance... don't judge me) and finding songs that seem to match each of the characters of Fairy Tail. This will be a collection of character sketches featuring these songs. Not really song fics; my suggestion is to find the music on YouTube or iTunes and give it a listen while reading these stories. They're good tunes!**

**Natsu's was not the first one I matched up (that'd be Juvia's), but his has the simplest lyrics, so I've started with him.**

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><p>Natsu: Set to Ferry Corsten - Fire (Original Mix).<p>

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><p>"I'm on fire!"<p>

The common refrain from Natsu, heard daily within the Fairy Tail guild, usually evoked sighs and rolls of the eyes from his fellow guild mates. But sometimes he spoke the words with such genuine passion that it made a few of them shiver.

The non-elemental mages sometimes didn't understand the alignment of the elemental mages with their respective humors. Natsu's pyromania was a manifestation of a deeper magic. He drew his energy from fire, breathed life into it, and consumed it. Probably the only others so in tune with who they were and what their magic could do were Juvia, Gajeel and Laxus. Gray used his ice make magic as a tool, not as a part of himself. Lucy considered her avatars as her friends. Even Wendy was still unsure of her skills and powers as a sky dragon.

Natsu's truest manifestation of his magic came to the fore when he was preparing for battle. So Lucy was surprised one day, when he whispered into her ear that she made him feel like he was on fire, too. The confession, said so artlessly and without preamble, caught her off guard. Her nascent feelings for Natsu were someplace she had not yet tread, so she replied cautiously.

"You mean, like you want to attack me?"

"No, not like that at all," he said hastily. "You just... give me that same energy. Every time I see you."

Lucy felt like her own face was on fire as well. "Um, so..." she said, her heart thudding in her chest.

"That's what I want us to stay partners forever," he said, oblivious to her patent embarrassment. "Well, you me and Happy. I think this is the best way for us."

She managed to composed herself once she realized that his inadvertent confession was not going to demand an answer right away. He wasn't thinking of her in terms of being in love with her, but that she gave him the same feelings for what he really loved - fighting and defending his friends.

"I will stay with you as long as you want me to, then."

Then, just to confound him and get a little revenge, she reached over and kissed his cheek gently.

She left him there, standing dumbfounded, looking after her. He'd lost control of his magic, and a thin veneer of flames was flowing around his body.


	2. Lucy: Home

**AN: Thanks for the reviews! And the dozen story alerts too, hehe. Hopefully I'll give you something worth coming back to.**

One of the reviews put forth a vigorous argument against NaLu. (Good thing they didn't read The Getta Room...) I won't get into a pairing war here, but I want to address one of the points they brought up - Natsu and Lucy are _comrades_. Yes, this is absolutely true. But you know what? No relationship in the real world endures unless you're best buds with your partner. My husband is my best friend in the world and has been for ten years (although the formal title is reserved for my best *girl* friend, Laura, whom I've known even longer and who is the most awesome person on the planet.) A healthy relationship requires both friendship and physical attraction. The order in which you arrive at them doesn't matter - you can be friends first and then date later, or go on a blind date that ends with pancakes in the morning and then discover that person is actually a really cool human being. But a relationship lacking in one or the other is doomed to failure.

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><p>Next up is Lucy's theme, Lost Witness featuring Tiff Lacey - Home (original mix) (easily found on YouTube and iTunes.) The lyrics are much more complex, but to me they really speak to her relationship to the stellar spirits - she has a strong instinct to protect them, and in a way a lot of her love for them is maternal in nature.<p>

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><p>Ten golden keys.<p>

Lucy held up her key ring, which was weighty with over a dozen ornate keys on it, four of them the common silvers and ten of them made of a precious gold alloy.

It was heavy, not only with the weight of the gold, but also with the layers of responsibilities that came with it.

Stellar spirit mages - summoners - were the rarest type of mage. Since the One Magic had split into all its varieties and flavors thousands of years ago, only a few summoners were born every generation. Perhaps there were more out there, but most of them were limited to the common silver keys. A stellar spirit mage normally would have hoped to attain one golden key in his or her lifetime. Her mother had been powerful and had owned three, which she had left to Lucy.

And now Lucy had ten. _Ten._

The last two of them were "lost" - which is why Lucy tended to visit dusty old magic shops whenever she could, hoping someone had foolishly sold it, not knowing that its worth was far more than that of its gold. Fortunately, the enchanted alloy would resist melting if someone tried to turn it back into base gold. The keys were more or less indestructible.

It was a warm evening, and she was sitting on the roof of her apartment building, which was bare and cement but afforded a lovely view of the city of Magnolia. The blue ribbon of the tamed river formed a square surrounding the heart of the city - it had been engineered that way to help with flood control. Overhead, the stars twinkled gently.

She picked out the stars of the zodiac, those that she could see anyway. The constellations changed depending on the time of year and the season. She knew, however, that even during the other seasons, the stars were still there, washed away by the light of the sun.

No one knew who created the stellar spirits. The origin of the keys was a mystery. Her brief discussions with the Celestial King and with Crux afforded her few clues. But one time, Loke had explained to her how they, as far as they knew, had come to be.

"We were once ordinary souls," he had said. "But something we did in life caught the eye of the Celestial King, and he awarded us the opportunity for immortality as a reward, with our contracts with living human mages as our payment. And we were engraved into the stars and given our names to match them."

They had been given the choice, he had said. They could choose to submit to the will of a living mage, or lose all their memories and reincarnate as ordinary mortals.

Most people chose to forget their lives. The Zodiac stellar spirits had decided instead to become more powerful, and to live on as immortals under the aegis of the King. That had been so long ago, and they'd live so long in the celestial realm, that their mortal lives were all but forgotten anyway.

The silver keys, on the other hand, had always been the companions of the Celestial King, and unlike the Zodiac, could have multiples of themselves summoned to Earthland at one time. Lucy knew them to be manifestations of the power of the Celestial king, independent aspects of him that had long ago gained their own wills. She had a feeling that it was through them that she had summoned the King himself, something no other stellar spirit made had ever been able to do.

Time passed differently in the Celestial sphere. Each summoning to Earthland lasted only a few moments of their day - although returning to the celestial sphere in much poorer shape was not uncommon either.

Lucy loved her spirits. She wanted to protect them, even as they wanted to protect her. She touched Aries key - the spirits often didn't know what kind of summoner they would be contracting with until it was too late. Not that they had much choice - the possessors of the golden keys had the right to form a contract with them, and it was unheard of for a stellar spirit to refuse.

She had to stay alive as long as she could to protect them from others of her kind. That was that.

As if sensing her thoughts, Loke opened his gate under his own power and appeared next to her.

"Is anything wrong?" she asked, looking at him in concern. He usually only appeared suddenly if she was in trouble.

"Nope, nothing," he answered, and sat down next to her uninvited. "Can't a guy choose to visit a pretty girl whenever he wishes?"

She smiled at the compliment and looked back up at the sky.

"I'm glad I could be a safe home for you," she said softly, and brushed the golden keys again. "I'm curious. What would happen if I ever found the last two keys?"

"Pisces and Libra?" Loke frowned. "I'm not sure. No stellar spirit mage has ever had all twelve keys at once. And those two guys have been out of commission for some time."

"How long has it been since you've seen them?"

"In the Celestial sphere, its been centuries. On Earthland... well, the time doesn't always match up exactly. It could have been a few years or a few decades." He scratched his chin. "But I never sensed them when I was here for those two years."

"They haven't been in the celestial sphere either?"

He looked uncomfortable. "They don't like the rest of us all that much. So they could have been there, but they might not have wanted to see us." He swallowed. "Or they could be unable to return."

She patted his arm consolingly. "If I can do anything to save them, I will."

"Heh." Loke smiled then, and looked up at the constellations himself. "That is why you are the strongest summoner to have existed, Lucy. Your trust in us is our strength." He touched her hand briefly as well, before standing up and brushing off his pants. "I better get back. Tell Natsu to keep his dirty mitts off my summoner, by the way." He pointed his finger angrily at her. "And you! Don't encourage him!"

She stuck her tongue out at Loke, then laughed. She knew Loke was jealous of Natsu, but love between a stellar spirit mage and a celestial avatar was not something that would ever end well, so she would allow him his snipes without too much worry. Loke was as protective of her as any of them, and he wanted to protect her heart as well as her body. She knew that if Natsu, or anyone else, ever hurt her, the spirits would be there beside her, ready to defend her with everything they had.

And then, something extraordinary happened. The rest of her spirits started appearing around her, even the ones that did not normally have the power to open their own gates. She felt a rush of overpowering love for them, from them, flowing around her and through them. She held her breath at the sight. They were all so beautiful.

Before long, she had all fourteen avatars around her, their keys glowing in her hands in response to their owners.

"Lucy!" they all cried, and even normally angry Aquarius had a misty smile on her face.

"You guys," she said with a sigh as she as enveloped in a crushing group hug, almost knocking the wind out of her. Their love filled her, consumed her. She closed her eyes and smiled.

"You're our home, Lucy," Loke whispered, and there was a chorus of agreement from the rest of the avatars before all of them disappeared back to the Celestial Realm as fast as they had come, leaving her alone on the roof again. A few lingering motes of their magic hung in the air before they winked out.

She knew that the Celestial King had sent them to her as a sign. She was the strongest, and possibly the last, summoner in Fiore. She had a duty to be the best master she could be, but in exchange, she would receive their unconditional aid and love as long as she remained undefeated.

She clutched the keys to her chest, feeling as though her heart was going to burst. "Someday I'll say to Pisces and Libra, I've come to take you home, too" she said to the stars above.


	3. Erza: Be Your Sound

**Erza: Cosmic Gate & Emma Hewitt - Be Your Sound**

**AN: This song is a lot newer than the first two (which are technically "classic trance" in that they're older than one year.) The trance world is very fast paced. This song hit the radio podcasts like a tidal wave around September, and is one of the top twenty trance songs of 2011. Listen to it on YouTube and you'll hear just why.**

**And of course, as soon as I heard this song, I thought of Erza.**

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><p>"So why did you want me to come here?"<p>

Jellal held out the note to Erza, which had simply said "Meet me tonight, here" with a small map.

She took her note back and tucked it neatly inside her pocket. They were standing in the shadows beside the river that ran through the town of Magnolia. The moon was a thin sliver and provided little light, but the river walk was lined with gas lamps, and gondoliers paddled couples down the river. The calm waters lapped at the stone lined edges, and clever landscapers and channeled streams in such a way as to create small waterfalls besides the buildings that were built directly into the embankment.

It was ridiculously romantic. Erza had picked it on purpose.

"You lied to me about having a fiance," she said without preamble.

Jellal's face darkened and he opened his mouth to object, but then closed it. He took a deep breath, and then said in measured tones, "How did you find out?"

"I knew you were lying the moment you said it," she said sternly, but her mouth softened into a grin. "You always were a terrible liar."

He leaned back against the wall, as if trying to sink further into the shadows.

"So what did you want with me?"

Erza stepped closer to him, effectively backing him up against the wall. She peered up at him - he wasn't that much taller than she was, but the sheer force of her will caused him to stand up straighter.

"I want to run away with you," she said simply.

Jellal's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious."

"I am always serious," she shot back. "I'm willing to throw away everything for you. Fairy Tail, the guild games, everything. I'm no longer afraid." She touched her hand to his chest. "I know why you pushed me away before." She set her cheek next to her hand. "You are afraid that you don't deserve me."

He gently settled his hands on her shoulders, and then just as gently pushed her back. "That is correct." He shook her by the shoulders, as if trying to make her understand. "I am a criminal. There is no place in Fiore that is safe."

"Then we'll leave Fiore."

"Erza," he said, exasperated. "You guessed right. I don't deserve you." But even as he said it, he caved in and hugged her. "You are everything that is good and right in this world," he whispered. "You deserve a lot better than a killer like me."

She patted him on the back. "I deserve whatever I want," she said simply. "And I want _you._"

There were tears running down his face, and she kissed his cheek and held him as the flood of emotions left him all at once.

"We'll find a new place," she said. "We'll run into a new day. I'm on your side now."

"Erza, you don't understand. The council still wants me executed."

"We'll build a fortress to keep them out." Her hands balled into fists against his back.

"It doesn't work like that."

"If they try to hurt you, I'll tear them down."

And with that, she reached up and kissed him soundly. This time, he did not reject her. She knew that she had won the argument this time, but he would of course not consent to run away with her. He thought she was bluffing.

"I'm on your side now," she said again after a long time. "And my offer stands. If you ever want to leave Fiore, I'll follow you wherever you go."

"What did I ever do to deserve the love of the Titania?" he murmured against her neck.

"Absolutely nothing," she said back, softly. "But you've got it anyway. And some day, I will be able to hold you in the light of day. I'm always with you now."

With that, she whistled for one of the gondoliers to come to the banks, so that they too could enjoy a ride on the river in the moonlight and shadows. It would be enough, for the moment.


	4. Juvia:  The Journey Continues

**Juvia: The Journey Continues - Mark Brown & Sarah Cracknell - 2008**

**AN: Sorry! I caught a cold and the last few days have been miserable. I had no energy to do anything except level my corsair to 99 in FFXI.**

**Juvia's song was the one that inspired this little series of stories. I was driving home from class, and this song came on my CD of 101 Trance Anthems. I went "Oh my, that's so Juvia!" and I wondered if I could make an AMV out of it... But I am no AMV artist. I'm just a writer. So you get fic instead.**

**Anyone else notice that her outfit is Maatel's from Galaxy Express 999, only in blue? Another reason to stick her on a train.**

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><p>Juvia clutched the bag of sweets in her hand. She had traveled several towns north of Magnolia to acquire the precious treat - the candy was a specialty and she hoped that Gray would like it since it had taken her so much trouble.<p>

She was sitting on a train, waiting for it to begin the journey back south. She was dressed primly as always, in one of her warmer outfits since the mountains were always a good bit colder than balmy Magnolia.

She sighed and looked out at the train station platform, wondering if anyone at Fairy Tail missed her. She often took simple missions alone, since there were certain things that were eminently suited to her water element. She actually had a lot of jewels saved up, although this trip and the ice crystal sweets in her bag had cost her a pretty penny. No matter - she had nothing else to spend her money on besides rent and food.

The train's whistle blew, and the mighty machine beneath her shifted softly.

She might as well take a nap.

She really, really missed Gray.

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about how much she loved him and missed him. The present she got for him would be worth it, but she didn't like being away from him for so long.

And as the train pulled away from the station, the rain came down suddenly, surprising the people on the platform who had believed it would remain sunny for the rest of the day.

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><p>Fairy Tail was in the usual chaos when she returned, and much to her relief she was greeted enthusiastically by Lucy, Levy, and Erza. She hoped that Gray might also be excited to see her after almost a week absence, but instead he was in a fight with Natsu again.<p>

She took a sit at one of the long mead hall tables, setting the precious bag of candies in front of her, watching him in fascination. He was stripped down to his boxers, and she admired the lean ripples of muscles along his back as he wrestled with his favorite rival.

"Ice make - snowball!" he said gleefully, and a perfectly round sphere of snow appeared in his hand. He promptly shoved this in Natsu's face.

"Oh that's dirty!" Natsu hollered, and immediately engulfed himself in flames to melt away the intrusion. The ice melted and turned into water vapor almost instantly, and Natsu had a murderous expression on his face. "I'm going to get you now!"

The fight merrily continued, and Juvia was so focused on watching Gray that she somehow completely missed a burning Natsu leaping across the table where she sat until there was a human shaped fireball careering toward her out of nowhere.

On instinct, she immediately melted herself into a puddle of water. Natsu could not really hurt her. But the precious bag of sweets was not so fortunate. Natsu deftly avoided it with his feet, but the flames licked out from him and set the bag on fire.

"Shit!" Gray swore when he saw what had happened. "Ice make - sphere!"

Juvia reformed her body and peered over the tabletop to see her precious bag of candies encase in ice. The singe marks were still visible on the bag even through the casing of ice. It had burned pretty badly.

"Juvia, I'm sorry!" Natsu yelled, even as Lucy smacked him on the side of the head.

"Really, Natsu? You almost killed Juvia!"

For her part, Juvia said nothing. She simply sat and stared at the bag of candies - ones she had picked up for her precious Gray - and tears pooled at the edges of her eyes.

But before she could cause an artificial rainstorm inside the mead hall, she grabbed her ice covered bag of sweets and fled.

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><p>The second she stepped outside, the rain came down.<p>

She couldn't help it. The teardrops came despite herself. She knew that Natsu hadn't meant to destroy it, and Gray had done his best to save his own secret gift, but it still hurt. She loved Fairy Tail, and she loved her friends and she really loved Gray, but sometimes they were just too destructive.

The clouds in the sky followed her, trying to comfort her with rain, but all they did was make the weather gloomy and sad for everyone else. The rainclouds loved her more than anyone else and wanted to shower her with affection, and even the sky itself could not stand when she was sad.

So Juvia had learned to curb her emotions over time, living most of her childhood and teenaged years dully.

It was only within Fairy Tail that she had began to open herself to the world of emotions - the protective tenderness she felt toward Gray, the joy, even the thrill of getting into a really good scrap with your friends.

But sometimes even your friends can hurt you. Even when they don't mean to.

She ducked into her apartment, getting herself enough under control that her loving rainclouds wouldn't follow her right into the room. She dropped the now soggy bag of sweets onto a table, and threw herself on the couch and tried to figure out what she was going to do.

She didn't realize she had been followed.

"Juvia," a familiar voice said from outside her door. "It's Gray. Can I talk to you?"

She sat up, her heart pounding suddenly. Gray... had come to see her?

Warily, she tiptoed toward the door. "Juvia is coming," she said quietly. She hesitated for a moment, and then opened the door.

There was Gray, soaking wet from the rainstorm.

They both stood there for a moment, Gray breathing heavily from running so fast and Juvia dripping unceremoniously on the floor. Her waterfall coif had melted into a series of dripping ringlets around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry," Gray spoke first. "Natsu and I should have been more careful."

"It's okay," she said timidly. "Juvia was not hurt."

"But your bag... is it okay?" He scratched his head. "What was in that, anyway?"

She went and retrieved the sodden bag. "Juvia traveled north to Bristlecone to get a special kind of candy... Juvia thought that Gray might like to try it."

She sighed and opened the bag. The sweets, which were made with ice energy, stayed frozen even at room temperature. But Natsu's fire had melted them down before Gray could freeze them again, and they were all puddled at the bottom in a gooey mess.

"Oh no," Gray said when he saw the bag. "You went and got those for me?" He cocked his head quizzically at her. "You didn't have to do that."

"But isn't tomorrow Gray's birthday?"

His face froze for a moment before he recovered. Apparently, he hadn't equated his birthday with getting presents.

"I... I guess it is," he said awkwardly. He rubbed his hand behind his neck. "Can I see that bag?"

She handed him the paper bag, and then blinked when he tore it in half, revealing the puddle of frozen candy at the the bottom.

He peeled the entire paper bag off, as if it was a wrapper.

And then he bit into the puddle of candy. He made a big motion out of chewing, and going "Mmmmmmm!" as he did so.

Juvia felt her heart getting lighter and lighter as she watched him devour every bit of the ruined birthday gift. To add a finishing touch, he made a show of licking his fingers.

"Thank you," he said. "I don't normally like sweet things, but that was nice and cold."

Now it was Juvia's turn to freeze. "Gray... does not like sweet things?"

"Well, yeah," Gray said, looking away. "Cakes and pies and stuff... those are more Erza's thing."

"Juvia... was going to bake you a cake," she said, her lower lip quivering. "But if Gray does not like cake then... Juvia doesn't have any other ingredients... Juvia doesn't know what to do." Teardrops.

"Aw jeez don't cry again! Dammit!"

And the rain came down.


	5. Ultear: Wall of Sound

**Ultear: Armin Van Buuren (feat. Justine Suissa) - Wall of Sound**

**AN: Hi everyone! Going with something a bit different and not shippy with this one. The song is a great classic tune from Armin van Buuren (my favorite trance artist/DJ) called Wall of Sound. I think this one is from 2006 or so. Doesn't matter, still awesome. Very deep, enigmatic lyrics and a tune that has been remixed countless times and still can be heard on trance radio stations and dance floor mixes around the world.**

**The song is about a young woman who has realized she's been living a lie. That says "Ultear" to me. So I've dropped this into the uncovered time when Fairy Tail and Tenrou Island were in stasis, but Crime Sorciere had formed and was actively trying to make the world a better place.**

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><p>Life is a series of low points and high points, Ultear had once heard someone say.<p>

It seemed to her that her life's lows and highers were offset from the X-axis, as if someone had slapped a big "-10" on her equation before she was born.

Was it so wrong to want to correct that?

It had been almost four years since the events on Tenrou Island. Two years ago, they had freed Jellal, who really did not deserve to be executed for crimes he did not willingly commit. Shortly after, he had suggested that they start a micro-guild to prevent any more tragedies.

Ultear had learned that Dark Mages were not born, they were made. Part of learning to want to live again was accepting that she had been lied to and manipulated from a very young age. The scientists who had lied to her mother, who had used her for their experiments, and then even Hades, whom she had loved like the father she had never known.

Hades had been so worldly, so wise. She had looked him in the eyes and seen someone who told the truth and believed only in truth for the first time. Not knowing that sometimes the truth can be wrong, she had accepted his promise that she could achieve anything she wished with her time magic.

So she had allowed herself to be used, in exchange for power. Power was the only real truth in this world, Hades intoned.

He had been so, so wrong.

When she had plunged into the ocean during her battle with Gray, she had learned that there was a more powerful truth. For the first time, when she had been engulfed in the warm embrace of the water, she had felt alive. Her life from start to end - she had been born with love, and lived with love, until she had been cruelly kidnapped. The magic energy had made her realize what a foolish mistake it was to trust only in power.

Love was the greater of the two truths, when applied and used properly.

So now, whenever they finished a mission - most of them were paid missions, off the books, although Crime Sorciere also did free missions to rescue children - Ultear would travel to the ocean, and bathe in the warm water, basking in the love and the affection of her mother. Ur had died loving her. Her last thoughts were of the precious baby girl she believed she had lost. Ultear had been loved.

She floated on top of the water, staring at the clouds above her, letting the sunlight seep into her skin.

Only here, surrounded by love, freed from the wall of lies that she had lived with so long, could she be happy.

She closed her eyes, at peace.


	6. Levy: First Scream

**AN: There are no lyrics available on the web for this tune: Nash & Pepper present Ostrega - First Scream**

**I guess because it's fairly new (June 2011). I tried to submit them to myself but then it wants you to be the actual artist (grr.)**

**So I'm breaking convention and giving you the lyrics here. You still have to find the song on You Tube though! The Marcus Schultz remix from last summer is more dub-step, and the latest Armin van Buuren (episode 542) has it just past the halfway mark in a more hard trance form.**

**Also, this is plopped right into the latest manga chapter, so if you're an anime watcher, this has spoilers.**

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><p><em>Unexpected<em>

_You came to me_

_Like an angel _

_Like a butterfly_

_Unexpected_

_You transformed me_

_A flower_

_Revealed in peace_

_The fruit in my womb_

_The mysterious sound (x4)_

_I hear his voice scream (x4)_

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><p>Levy's feelings for Gajeel sometimes confused her.<p>

_He_ confused her.

Why had he picked her for an S-rank partner? She knew that she had been convenient - he had wanted to participate, had been upset that he had not been chosen as a candidate considering he was already at S-class strength - but he hadn't couched it in terms of selfishness at all.

_I will make you big._

She had thought was reading too much into those words. She had to be.

After the events on Tenrou Island and those lost seven years, though, she knew she had been wrong.

She felt herself transforming. She started fixing her hair in the morning. She started asking Lucy for fashion advice. There was nothing that could be done about her small chest size (really, she was average, it was all the other ladies in Fairy Tail who were freakishly oversized in comparison), but Lucy had pointed out that the shape of one's cleavage was all that mattered, and had taken her to her favorite corsetier for a custom fitting.

So here she was, in the capital of Fiore for the guild games, wearing one of her new bras that gave her confidence and lift. Her hair had been gently gelled to give more fluff and definition to her wavy locks.

And she was wearing a new perfume that Erza had passed onto her, saying it suited her more. She had been afraid it would be too flowery, but the floral scent was subtle and was underscored by a faint musky tone as well. She looked great, she smelled great, and she felt great.

But Gajeel was missing.

She tried not to think about what could happened to him - he was strong, maybe the strongest person in the guild - he could take care of himself.

But every time she closed her eyes, she heard his voice scream.

She never wanted to hear that again.

She pressed her hand against her stomach, marveling at all the feelings and things that had happened to her in the last few weeks - she _liked_ Gajeel. She began to see little mannerisms in him that she hadn't noticed before, when she looked back on him in reflection. She was beginning to think of him in terms of... well, he'd be a great father. He would be a wonderful husband.

She shook her head. Those thoughts were too far away. They weren't even really _dating_ yet.

"Come on Levy!" Cana said, and pulled her along outside of the hostel where they were staying. "Get your head out of the clouds. Let's go get a pretty dress for you to wear when Gajeel returns."

She smiled at her friend. They all knew about her crush, and had vowed to support her in any way they could.

"All right," she said, but glanced at the sky and sent a brief prayer for Gajeel's safety.

_I hear his voice scream..._


	7. Natsu: Worlds Fall Apart The Nakama Song

**Hi everyone! Thank you for all the reviews and follows. This semester of graduate school hit me like a Mack truck, so I apologize for the lack of updates. Someday I'll be a director of IT and live in a server dungeon and I can write fanfiction all day again.**

**This chapter is once again a Natsu chapter - a brand new song too, from Dash Berlin featuring Jonathan Mendelsohn. The song is "Worlds Fall Apart" and the official music video should be the first thing that pops up on Google, followed by lyrics a few hits down. Although I'm giving it to Natsu, this can pretty much be summed up as "The Nakama Song" and it really needs to have an epic music video done to it with Fairy Tail and One Piece splashed all over it.**

Natsu loved his friends.

Love wasn't even really an adequate word. They were family - Grey was like a brother, Erza and Mirajane like older sisters, Happy like a little brother - Lucy was in her own special sphere, since she was newer and he couldn't quite categorize her as "family" - maybe she was his hot stepsister?

Igneel had instilled in him a deep sense of loyalty that was so ingrained that even if someone from a rival guild promised him his deepest desires - the location of the missing dragons - he would not hesitate in refusing the information if it put his guild mates in danger. Well, maybe he would hesitate a little. If it wasn't urgent.

He and Lucy were sitting outside the guild on a warm summer day, their heads shielded by umbrellas, drinking fancy drinks that Mirajane had whipped up for them. Lucy's was iced and minty and green, but his had been set aflame inside its glass, and he alternated between nibbling on the alcoholic flaming tip and sipping the more potent liquid beneath it. His glass and straw were made out of heat resistant ceramics, and were a permanent fixture of Mirajane's bar.

"Jewel for your thoughts?" Lucy asked, poking his foot under the table.

"I was just thinking about different kinds of friends," he said, always honest. He knew he was a terrible liar so he never tried to hide anything.

Lucy raised one eyebrow. "You have different kinds?"

Natsu was also not one to put his emotions into words easily. "There are our friends inside the guild, and outside the guild... those are two different kinds of friends."

She nodded. "Go on," she prodded.

"Well, within Fairy Tail, there's the group I think of as family." He hesitated again. "I was thinking of... well, the time I saved Erza from the Lacrima. Am I a bad person for... well, I think if it was anyone but Erza or you or Gray or Happy or Lisanna or maybe Mirajane or Levy or Makarov, I wouldn't have done that."

Lucy actually laughed. "It's not weird, Natsu. It's normal to have friends that are closer than others."

"With Erza... I want to be there when her world falls apart. Like it did when she was betrayed by Jellal." He clenched his fists. "I want to make her smile. I want to be there until the end."

"Natsu," Lucy said softly, her laughter dissolving as she realized he was being serious. "I feel the same way about you, and all of Fairy Tail too." Her eyes looked off in the distance, no doubt remembering some of the battles they had been through together. "Through the dark of night... when the walls start closing in... I want to be there to save everyone. I want to be your friend, 'til the end." She reached out and touched his hand. "We all have something special here in Fairy Tail. I didn't realize just how special it was until I joined."

"So it's not weird for me to love you guys?" He felt relieved.

"Not at all, Natsu" she said, and squeezed his hand. "Not at all."


	8. Natsu and Lucy: Skies on Fire

**Hi everyone! Happy V-Day! Today is some Natsu/Lucy fluff. No incorporated lyrics this time, but you need to look up the lyrics to _First State ft. Sarah Howells – Skies on Fire_and have it playing during this particular fic.**

**I don't personally do _poi_ (I'm an LED hooper!) but I think it is beautiful. Practice fire safety first!**

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><p>"So, what's this present you have for me?" Natsu was sitting cross legged on a picnic blanket, staring at Lucy, who was standing on the top of a small hill in the evening sunset. Behind her were two of her summons: Aquarius, which she had called forth under her own power, and Scorpio who was there through his own gate to keep Aquarius company. The two were snoodling, ignoring their mistress.<p>

"I've been practicing with Cana for this," Lucy said shyly. She was wearing one of her "cosplay" outfits - the usual mini skirt, a tight tank top, and fluffy legging - oddly enough, the entire outfit was made out of a natural, finished leather. It looked uncharacteristically subdued for her, were it not for the flamboyant cut and the amount of skin showing. Her hair was also tightly bound, another unusual style for her.

"Practicing?"

"Yes," Lucy said uncertainly. In her hands were two large fans, with strange cottony looking lumps on the end. "Cana said that you don't really like chocolate, so I wanted to give you something else..."

"Awww Luce, that's ok." He grinned at her. "I like enough other foods that I would have been okay with anything else, too." He glanced down at Happy.

"Aye!" Happy agreed, chowing down on the precious sushi rolls that Lucy had put together for him.

"Well, I wanted to give you something anyway." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to burn up all my magic for you." She held up a silver key, and performed a rare double summon. "Open the gate of the Harp! Lyra!"

Her musician appeared, and for a moment Lucy appeared strained as she held two summons at once, but then she regained control. She was getting stronger, Natsu observed.

"Can I get a small flame?" she asked, and proffered one of the strange metal fans with the cotton lumps on the end. As she did, Natsu got a strong whiff of kerosene. Curious, he ignited his fingertip and lit the cotton lump, which he recognized now as an unusually shaped wick. With a smooth motion, Lucy passed the flame to the remaining wicks on both fans.

Suddenly, she was holding two fully burning fans. The effect was dramatic, and Natsu felt his breath catch at the sight.

Then Lyra began to play, a strange rhythmic music in a style he'd never heard before. Scorpio started clapping steadily. Lyra began to croon out a gentle tune about the skies being on fire.

And then Lucy began to dance.

The streaks of the flames emanating from her fans swirled around her in the growing darkness. The music from Lyra drifted across the hill. She would lift the fans high, and swirl them around, sometimes coming dangerously close to her hair or her clothing. However, the leather resisted the flames, and her hair was so tightly held to her head that no errant strands got in the way.

The dance was eerie and so beautiful. The fringes from her leggings whirled around with her. Natsu had never noticed how graceful and lithe she was. She must have taken ballet lessons as a young girl, he decided. He was fascinated at how she could whirl the fans so fast they left streaks in the air, and then slow them down for a delicate pose. The flames roared when she whipped them quickly.

She continued dancing until her flaming wicks began to sputter, which Lyra took as a cue to wind the music down. Aquarius came forward, rather grumpily, with a damp towel to put out the last of the flames. She had been there for safety all along.

Out of magic from sustaining the two summons for so long, she released both Aquarius and Lyra. Scorpio followed after his girlfriend, waving goodbye with a mysterious grin. Breathing heavily, Lucy turned toward her small audience, and then bowed gracefully, her dance over.

"You did that... for me?" Natsu said after a few long moments of stunned silence.

"Yeah," Lucy said with a crooked smile. "It was Cana's suggestion, but everyone helped. Virgo even made this outfit, based on some ideas from Bisca for the leather work."

Natsu continued to stare at his beautiful partner with large eyes. After a few moments, he remembered himself.

"Thank you," he said, his voice cracking. "It was beautiful." _She_ was beautiful. "

Happy Valentine's Day, Natsu," Lucy said, and knelt gently on the ground in front of him to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Awwwww, she likes you!" Happy teased, before flying away to give the couple some privacy. Natsu watched the Exceed run away, no doubt to try to harass Charle into accepting his own present.

"And all I got you was a card," Natsu said mournfully. "I wasn't really going to give you a nice present until White Day..."

Lucy gave him a hug. "That's okay. I was just happy that I could give you something you liked."

After a few moments of platonic hugging, Natsu couldn't help but say, "If you ever set yourself on fire doing that, I'll be glad to eat it off you."

Lucy stiffened for a moment, then rolled her eyes. "Pervert," she muttered, but gave him a squeeze nonetheless.

"I was totally not being perverted!" Natsu backpedaled. "I just though it'd be... tasty."

He was spared from further explanation by Lucy pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. She smelled like smoke and leather and everything wonderful in the world, and he was glad to have an excuse to shut up and just enjoy the moment.

Shortly after that, they walked back to Lucy's apartment, discussing the logistics of just how Lucy could safely set herself aflame for the fire dragon slayer.


	9. Charle: Fallen Angel

**Charle's song is Dennis Sheperd & Cold Blue Feat. Ana Criado – Fallen Angel. This is a very melancholic song, and one that suits the ever-gloomy Charle. Sometimes I think Charle got the short end of the stick in the series – her love interest choice is limited to the handful of known Exceed on Earthland, her own mother didn't even tell her that she was her baby, and she's stuck with horrifying visions of shitty futures. So, Charle gets a gloomy song, although I've tried to balance the angst and self pity with some positive vibes too. And besides, she has Happy, who worships the ground she walks on.**

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><p>Sometimes, Charle felt the loneliness well up inside her still.<p>

For almost her entire young life she had believed herself to be on a mission from her people. When she'd learned that was not the case - instead, she had a weak latent psychic ability that let her see possible futures - well, it had turned out to be even stranger.

One such thought had bubbled up - that she was the Princess Beatrice. At the time, it seemed like a fantastic improvisation, and one that had worked out well enough at the time.

Then she'd met the Queen of the Exceed... and the improvisation had turned out to be true.

The Queen had never come right out and said that Charle was her daughter. Even Charle herself hadn't really believed it, but the thought kept nagging at her, and as she came more into her own magical powers, she finally came to accept it as the truth.

But there was a peace there as well... the Queen had sent her to Earthland to save her, not to abandon her. Still, she felt like a fallen angel, stripped of her wings. She was unable to find her way home to Edolas ever again.

Wendy too, had been abandoned, but Wendy was at least among her own kind at Fairy Tail.

Charle was alone.

Well, there was Happy. She begrudgingly supposed that he counted for something.

Then there was Pantherlily, but he was so much older than her, and strange and foreign. She felt intimidated by him.

In the end, though, it was her abilities that really made her feel as though she was apart from everyone else. Her Sight made her see the worst of all futures, and rarely did she ever see anything peaceful or happy. She knew that the depressing visions were but one possible path, and that her talent was meant to function as a warning system.

Everyone burning in the flames of Hell on a regular basis in her mind did not make her a positive person to be around.

She was surprised, when Wendy went to see Polushka for training assistance for the Guild games, when the old lady had patted her on the head and told her she needed more training. She had slipped her a document as well, one that outlined some mental tricks for those who had the gift of Sight.

So while everyone else was trying to desperately buff themselves up in the last few days, Charle had read Polushka's spidery writing, fascinated.

"When you fall into the darkness, or into the fear, you must not allow those emotions to overcome you. The futures you see may be grim. But they are always outcomes that you can avoid, else you would not even see them. And even when you see the grimmest of fates that may seem unavoidable, what you see in your mind may not always be what is the truth."

Boy, did Charle ever learn that lesson the hard way...

"Do not let yourself be swept away by the past. Do not be afraid of the ghosts that re-appear."

Some of Charle's worst visions still haunted her nightmares, even though they had not come to fruition.

"The best remedy for those who have the Sight is to get in the habit of envision the future that you want to see. For just as the visions show you many paths toward the future, you have the ability to also bend the actual future to your will."

That last line puzzled Charle. How could one little cat change the future? She was not a powerful fighter like Pantherlily or a nimble little... whatever Happy was. Her ability was seeing the future and then doing her best to dodge it.

"What are you reading?" a familiar, innocent voice said from above her.

She tilted her head up to see Happy flying there, his face blinking at her own, politely ignoring the document until he had her permission.

She was about to snap off that it was none of his business, but she stopped herself.

Envision the future you want to see...

Well, a future in which Happy was less annoyingly cute would be a good start.

"I'm reading about how to control my magic," she said, carefully using small words.

"Oh, so you're trying to get strong for the games too?" he said cheerfully, looking impressed. He flew in a loop above her head, and then settled down on the bench next to her. "I'm glad, I want all of us to get stronger so we can fight together."

And it was his big dopey grin that finally cracked Charle's heart.

She wasn't alone. She was part of Fairy Tail too.

And dammit, she was going to get stronger along with the rest of them. Starting today.

"You can help me," she said seriously.

Happy looked joyful. "How?"

"Help me envision a future where you never give me another fish again."


	10. Gray and Juvia: You Belong to Me

**Next up, Bobina ft. Betsie Larkin – You Belong To Me. Google it, listen to the YouTube videos, read the lyrics. Fantastic tune.**

**More Gruvia. Spoilers for last week's manga chapter (275) as of this posting. (((Sorry, GraLu fans, I think a CanonBall(TM) just sunk your ship...)))**

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><p>After the party started to wind down, Gray found Juvia sitting with the other girls from Fairy Hills, sipping the remnants of her usual vodka on the rocks. He was still annoyed with her accusation earlier that afternoon - that he and Lucy were lingering at the hotel because they were, well, confessing to each other. Or something silly.<p>

He was still grappling with his own feelings toward the water mage. It wasn't until Lyon had started trying to ram his way into Juvia's life that it occurred to Gray that maybe, just maybe, he better try to do something about Juvia before she slipped through his fingers. At first he'd been baffled by her affections, then a little flattered and a lot creeped out, but she'd always been a harmless presence, and there was actually something a little reassuring knowing that you always had a powerful ally following you around.

So he'd ignored her, ignored the pointed giggles of everyone else from Fairy Tail, ignored the way the other girls had started to give a wide berth to him lest they incur Juvia's wrath - and ignored his own growing, confusing relationship with her.

"Juvia," he called, and she turned to him, those fathomless dark eyes staring at him from under her restyled hat and hair. He liked her new ensembles - she'd always been so severely buttoned up before, he liked to think that maybe her dressing more relaxed was some of his influence.

"Gray-sama," she said softly, her face softening in adoration. "Are you leaving?" She stood up gracefully, blushing heavily. She then downed the last of her vodka in one long gulp, perhaps as a shot of liquid courage, and then said, "Would you like to walk back to the hotel with me?"

He chuckled a bit on the inside. Such a simple request was so much effort for her. Two days ago when she'd worked up the nerve to ask him to dinner, he'd been actually looking forward to her company, then Lyon had to go and ruin the whole thing.

"Of course," he said, and waited for her to gather her things to join him.

They did not hold hands. Too soon, too much confusion. Once they stepped outside the saloon, however, Gray offered up an alternate suggestion. "Let's walk around the town some more," he said, and proffered his arm.

Hesitantly, still painfully shy, Juvia placed her hand in the crook of his elbow. He could see that she was pleased and trying desperately not to swoon.

They were really going to need to work on that.

They evening air was cool. Modern street lights lit the way around the town. They walked in companionable silence, until Juvia stopped suddenly.

"Look, Gray-sama," she said softly, and pointed to an ice sculpture that someone had made for the games. It was all the symbols of all the several hundred guilds in Fiore, carved out of a wall of ice. "That was done with Ice Make, wasn't it?"

Gray nodded, and whistled appreciatively. "It must have taken the ice mage several days. Look, each section was created independently, then melted together."

"Can you do something like that?"

"Maybe," he said carefully. "I'm a fighter, not an artist."

"I believe Gray-sama can do anything he wants to," Juvia said, and Gray glanced down sharply at her. Her guard was down. Instead of the hero worship hearty-eyes that usually accompanied her tone whenever she said something like that, her eyes were still studying the sculpture in front of them. "Look, there's Fairy Tail!" She pointed near the upper edge, where the running bird that represented their guild had been attached.

Unconsciously he reached up to touch the mark on his chest, then he glanced down to where Juvia's was, hidden on her leg below her skirt.

Below that skirt lay the mystery land... He'd seen those long legs before; the one broken so horrifically at Tenrou island still bore faint scars, although Wendy had healed it well enough that the water mage had no visible limp.

He felt a rush of something, a desire to protect her that went beyond the fierce loyalty he felt for everyone else in Fairy Tail. Never again did he want her to be hurt in such a manner, especially protecting him.

But that was silly. Juvia was one of the strongest mages in Fairy Tail, when she wanted to be.

"Gray-sama?" she said, breaking his reverie. "Let's go back to the hotel."

"Yeah," he rumbled in agreement, and tugged her along. "Juvia... how do you really feel about me?" he asked, then wanted to hit himself for saying it out loud. That sort of Freudian slip was expected of Natsu, not of him.

"You belong to me," she said simply.

That simple sentence caused him to shiver. She said it so plainly, so possessively. She even referred to herself in first person.

"Then why can't you trust me? Why are you always accusing everyone else of going after me?"

"Juvia trusts Gray-sama completely," she said, but stopped walking to stare down at her feet. "But Juvia does not trust any of the other girls." She sighed. "Gray-sama is so wonderful, how could they not also love him?"

Gray sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "First off, I'm not that wonderful." He tugged her along again, as it was awkward standing there with her soft hand tucked in his arm. He could feel the pressure like a burning through his shirt, and had the resist the sudden itch to throw the garment off. "Second.. you do know that almost every girl in Fairy Tail is spoken for, right?"

"What do you mean?"

Gray began ticking off on his fingers. "Natsu and Lucy are friends with benefits. They just don't talk about it in polite company. Levy has a huge crush on Gajeel. Erza is madly in love with Jellal, even if she won't admit it to herself." He thought of the other single ladies in the guild. "Cana and Lisanna are like sisters to me. Even if they had feelings for me - which they don't, trust me - I could never do anything with them."

And there it was, his entire non-existent harem laid bare before the one girl he actually sort of liked. She was silent, digesting his speech, but then after a few minutes she asked, "What is 'friends with benefits?'"

Gray stumbled a bit, but he recovered quickly. "They've been sleeping together since long before the lost years," he explained, knowing that innocent Juvia probably had never heard the term before.

"Oh," she squeaked, probably sorry she asked.

They reached the hotel, and Gray only dropped her hand now so that he could open the door for her. She glided in, and there was a pause in the foyer of the inn because the girls were on the second floor, and the boys were on the ground level.

She touched her hand to the banister, and Gray, realizing there was no hope for it and he was just going to need to get used to being a couple with her, leaned forward and kissed the water mage on the lips.

That kiss hit him like a punch in the gut. She was soft, and she flowered beneath his mouth without any persuasion needed. She tasted clean, fresh.

"You belong to me," he repeated her own words back to her, nuzzling her lips. "Now, don't pass out on me," he warned, when he saw her eyes losing focus. "If we're going to make this work you need to quit losing your wits every time I look at you."

"Yes Gray-sama," she agreed, and straightened herself out. "Could we too... possibly become friends with benefits?"

He stared at her, wondering if she realized just what she was asking. They'd only just kissed for the first time, just now!

"Maybe someday," he said, and gave her one final kiss before letting her arms go. "But tonight, I think we should get some sleep. We have to cheer on our friends tomorrow, don't we?"

She nodded gently, apparently waging a battle with herself. One side evidently lost when she launched herself at him, pressing her lips against his, and he found himself kissing her eagerly again.

So much for a good night's sleep.

They kiss-stumbled to the room that Gray was supposed to be sharing with Natsu. As expected, it was empty; Natsu was probably with Lucy in Lucy and Levy's room, and Levy was probably with Gajeel in Gajeel and Mystogan's room, and Mystogan- Jellal - was probably with Erza in Erza and Mirajane's room. Mirajane had probably cleared out, and Juvia's temporary room mate Cana was probably still passed out from where they'd had to drag her defeated butt up to the room earlier.

It was probably for the best that they not disturb Cana for a while. She might actually experience a hangover for the first time tomorrow.

He banished all thoughts of his guild mates for the moment, and concentrated on the water mage in front of him.

"Juvia, are you sure about this?" he asked, nibbling hungrily on her neck. She sighed beneath him.

"About what, Gray-sama?" she asked, ever so innocently.

He stopped abruptly. Surely she... she was the one who had tackled him, dammit! Surely she knew what she had asked him earlier, about the whole "friends with benefits thing."

"You want to stay here with me tonight?"

"Yes," she said firmly. "Juvia wants to stay."

And she looked at him, with eyes so filled with love and trust, that he felt his heart cracking in two.

What on Earth did he ever do to deserve this? he wondered to himself, and he couldn't tell if it was a sentence uttered in joy or despair.

There was only Juvia, exasperating, stalking, silly Juvia, who loved him for no reason at all.

He kissed her senseless again. Only she, it seemed, could really set him free.

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><p>AN: Okay, so that teetered dangerously close to a lime there. I don't want to change the rating... So! Use your imagination. Either they've taking the step of "benefits" or Juvia passed out from the excitement and nothing else happened. Your pick.

Thanks for all the reviews and follows and kind words so far. They are greatly appreciated.


	11. Jellal and Erza: Better Half of Me

**Time for some more Erza/Jellal. Look for the tune Dash Berlin ft. Jonathan Mendelsohn – Better Half Of Me. This is a relatively new song (mid 2011), and pretty lyric intense.**

**And just for the lulz, this takes place at the same time as the last song... after the party of chapter 275.**

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><p>One by one - or two by two, in a few cases, Jellal noticed with an uncritical eye from his observation point outside the bar- the members of Fairy Tale left the bar they had invaded for their party and returned to the Honey Bone inn. Although it had been his Edolas counterpart that was really the guild member, Jellal couldn't help but be jealous of the warmth and camaraderie of the guild when it was in full-blown party mode. Crime Sorceré was too small to really party in the same sense. Most evenings after a hard mission, he, Meredy, and Ultear ended up polishing off a bottle of some expensive alcohol and calling it a night.<p>

Ah, but those two were like his family now in a lot of ways. They had actually broken him out of jail, not for any benefit to themselves, but because of a sense of duty and obligation for what had been done to him. And when his memories came back, he didn't know what was left of himself. Who was the real Jellal? A terrible murderer, or a young boy who had fallen in love with Erza Scarlett's iron will and pretty hair?

With their help, he had collected himself, crawled through the shadows, and vowed that he would make up for it somehow, and never make the same mistakes again.

And there was the reason, standing right there, just a short distance away from him. He caught her eyes through the open window, and felt his heart squeeze when he saw her gentle smile, before she was distracted by some commotion inside the party.

She had forgiven him. God only knew why, but she had decided to forgive him for the horrible things he had done to her and to everyone else, even if it wasn't by his own free will.

Some time later, she reappeared, and caught his eyes. The smile was gone.

She jerked her heard toward the door, and he slid down from his perch to meet her on the street about a block away from the party.

"Erza," he said, trying to sound cool and casual, but failing miserably.

She had on her game face. "We've got a new enemy in Quatro Cerberus," she said, anger laced through her words. "Bacchus. That bastard out-drank Cana, stole her top, and then beat up half the guild."

He sighed. "Yeah, sounds like something that lecher would do. What an ass."

"Let us go somewhere we can talk more in private," she said without further ceremony, and started walking away at her normal brisk pace. He struggled to catch up with her for a moment until he could match her cadence, and then they walked in silence together.

He was surprised when she led them to the Honey Bone inn itself, and went upstairs wordlessly. He followed her, but stood there dumbly as she pulled out a key to a room.

"I thought the rooming assignments had you sharing with Mirajane and Lisanna?"

"I paid extra for a private room," she said, and opened the door. "Come."

Erza, the born leader. Her words were so filled with authority that he followed her against his better judgment.

"I shouldn't be here," he started, but she pressed one finger against his mouth, and then sat him down hair in one of the chairs.

"I have some aggression I need to work out, but I don't want to get into a fight in case I'm called up in the games soon." He looked into those hardened eyes, flashing with her frustration and anger, but as she looked at him just as deeply, the eyes softened. "I was hoping you could help me out in that regard."

"But I have a fiance," he said desperately. He had a feeling he wasn't getting away with the lie this time.

"Take off that silly scarf," she ordered, ignoring his objection. "And I too will change into something more comfortable." As he was unwrapping the Mystogan costume from his face, she was ex-quipping her armor off and replacing it with... well, to call her negligee a nightgown would be too polite. It was torture - she was a fantastically beautiful woman, and she knew it. The silk danced above her bare skin.

"Now," she said, sitting on his lap, "I have verified with Merody and Ultear that the 'fiancee' is non existent." He held his breath as she threaded her hands through his hair. "Therefore, I am fully justified in being as forward with you as I wish. Especially since *you* lost today."

"Erza-" he started, but he was interrupted by a searing kiss.

He thought of what it would have been like had she not disappeared for seven years. Could they have been together like this then? He didn't know.

Now he wanted her to see the real him, the man he had become, the vulnerable side he never showed to anyone. He was alone and incomplete without her.

If he lost her again, he would fall forever, endlessly. She was the ground beneath his feet.

She broke the kiss, looking at him with such tenderness he wanted to weep. "I suppose I should give you a choice now," she whispered, and traced one finger along his jawline. "What do you want us to do? What am I to you?" she asked.

"You're the better half of me," he answered.


	12. Natsu and Lucy: Your Loving Arms

**Thank you all for all the kind reviews. As you may have guessed, I'm trying to rotate out the couples as much as a I can. **

**So, it's time for some more NaLu! Going for a solid trance classic this time: Karen Overton's Your Loving Arms. Look for the 2007 Armin Van Buuren (squee!~ sorry fangirl moment, he's that awesome) remix.**

**As with the previous two chapters, this takes place on the night of chapter 275.**

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><p>After Cana's inglorious defeat at the hands of Bacchus, Lucy, Mirajane and Juvia carry the unconscious lush back to the Honey Bone Inn. They dropped her onto the hotel bed and tucked her in.<p>

"Poor dear," Mirajane said, smoothing the frowns out of her brow. "I wouldn't be surprised if she wakes up in a few hours with a tummy-ache."

"If Wendy was feeling well, maybe she could have helped her," Juvia added. "Juvia will help her as best she can, though."

The other two watched in surprise as the water mage created in her hand a perfect, sphere shaped floating ball of water, and tenderly pressed it into the card mage's body. Cana winced, mumbled something in her sleep, and then sighed.

"What a good idea," Lucy said quietly, as Cana's dazed countenance almost immediately turned more peaceful.

"Juvia isn't a healer, but Juvia can hydrate as good as an IV," she said with a small smile. "Now please excuse me, Juvia must return to the party before Gray-sama leaves."

The water mage glided away, her lovely curling tresses floating down her back. Lucy definitely approved of her latest hairstyle change.

"I'm going to help clean the bar up," Mirajane said as well.

"I'll help," Lucy offered.

She was still trying not to think about her terrible defeat earlier. The spell, one that no stellar spirit mage had attempted before, had _worked _dammit. How could she have known that its reach would be so great that it could be nullified from a cheating bastard outside the ring?

Okay, the part of her that was a true Fairy Tail mage was more upset that she hadn't seen the result of her powerful handiwork than she was that she had lost.

Such a cool spell. Such a _waste_.

The three young women returned to the bar down the street from the inn, but by then the party was winding down. On cue, Gray called out to Juvia. Mirajane giggled as Juvia's whole face lit up in joy.

"Those two really need to just admit their feelings for each other," Mirajane said dreamily. Lucy saw that she was in full matchmaker mode, and quickly stepped away. She wanted no part in Mirajane's schemes.

Unfortunately, Mirajane didn't even need to interfere because within moments, Natsu found her anyway.

"Luuuucy!" he said, still slightly inebriated himself from the flaming shots the bartender had given him. "I'm totally gonna kick ass for you tomorrow!"

And he threw his arms around her, and she felt her soul warm up at his touch, as it always did.

She pulled away, but slid her hand down to catch his. "Come along, let's help Mirajane clean this place up a bit. It's rude to leave it so trashed."

"Awwww, do we have to?" Natsu whined, but squeezed her hand before breaking the contact, grabbing a chair and hauling it upright.

Lucy stared after him, feeling confused as always. Sometimes the way he acted made her wonder what she really was to him.

They were a couple, but not a couple. They shared a bed most nights (something Gray teased them mercilessly about), but never once had they kissed or done anything that would make them, well, an item.

But then he'd put his loving arms around her, and whisper a private joke in her ear, and inside his arms she'd be burning.

With a sigh she grabbed a handful of paper towels and started to mob up one of the tables. Normally, the guild would have just left an exceptionally large tip to compensate for the automatic destruction they created wherever they went, but being the poorest, last ranked guild in the nation meant they had to take care of things themselves for once. With Mirajane directing and the remaining mages all pitching in, the bar was cleaned up in short order.

"All done!" Natsu said triumphantly, giving the grateful bartenders a thumb's up. "And now I need a shower and a sleep for the events tomorrow!"

"Aye~ Natsu really needs a shower!" Happy chimed in merrily, holding his nose for added effect.

"Awwww Happy, it's not that bad!" Natsu complained.

Lucy smiled at him, feeling her heart swell again as she watched him grumble at his best friend. Then she grabbed his hand, and pulled him toward the door.

"Come," she said. "I have it on good authority that Levy will not be in our room tonight."

She wondered why she told Natsu that. Normally, she wanted him to stay out of her room and out of her privacy. It was so confusing sometimes.

They walked back to the inn together, Happy toddling beside them because he was too tired to fly.

"Ne, Natsu," she said, thinking aloud, "Doesn't it seem strange sometimes how all of our friends are sort of pairing off?"

Natsu stared off in the distance, obviously pondering it seriously.

"Naw," he finally concluded. "Isn't it human nature, to want to find a girl if you're a guy, or find a guy if you're a girl?"

Lucy was suddenly very conscious of their hands intertwined between them.

"I guess so," she agreed, then took a deep breath. "So am I your girl?"

They were in front of the inn. Natsu stopped, and looked at her with a curiously sober expression on his face.

"He liiiikes you," Happy said dreamily.

In the perfect answer, he reached out to embrace her.

"Maybe you are," he whispered.

They stood in front of the inn for a long time, tenderly kissing, ignoring the teasing cheers from Happy and at least one drunken shout for them to get a room.

Well, perhaps they didn't ignore that last one, as before long they headed upstairs to the second floor of the inn, together.


	13. Gajeel and Levy: Breaking Through

**AN: The last of this little series of four post-275 pair offs, the GaLe one. The tune for ****this is Stoneface & Terminal featuring Ellie Lawson with "Breaking Through." A very ****positive song, fairly new, with a wee bit of a dubstep sound in a few places.**

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><p>Gajeel and Levy had sat next to each other for most of the party. They were still both incredibly nervous over this whole "I sort of like you but don't know how you feel about me" thing they'd been dealing with since the return from Tenrou island before. In fact, Gajeel had had an extra three months of time to deal with it, so maybe Levy was the only one who was really nervous.<p>

It was terrifying, realizing you were in love and the person you loved maybe-sort of-kind of liked you back. She felt as if she was standing on the edge of a cliff, with Gajeel at her back. If she said the right thing, he'd reach out and grab her and pull her into his arms.

But if she did this wrong, he might be the one to push her off.

So she was determined to make every second count in the meantime, simply enjoying his company. She let him tease her, she grabbed him to stop him from getting into a friendly brawl with Laxus, she waited for some sort of sign. But she was getting tired of waiting.

She had asked Lucy if it might be possible to not stay up for her, as she was going to perhaps try jumping off the cliff that night.

Once the party wound down and Mirajane had everyone tidy up, people left in small clumps or pairs to return to the Honey Bone Inn together. Jet and Droy demanded that they escort her, much to her annoyance. That perhaps wasn't fair, they just wanted to protect her, but she also felt it was to also prevent a certain dragon slayer from making any sort of passes at her.

Little did they suspect it was going to be the other way around.

Once they arrived at the inn she made a show of going upstairs, but simply waited until Jet and Droy had disappeared to their assigned room before she ducked out the fire stairs after scripting "disarmed" around the door alarm with some basic runes. Solid script was her specialty, but any magic that involved words was fairly easy for her. Once she was on the fire escape, she canceled the spell, listening for a few moments to make sure it was still silent.

She snickered a bit to herself. She'd make a great thief.

Once on the bottom floor, she used the solid script spell "window" written on the walls with very small letters except for the first W, giving her the ability to peer into the men's rooms. She knew Gajeel and Lily were somewhere near the middle of the building, and it only took her three tries to find them.

She immediately closed the window spell when she discovered that Gajeel had just gotten out of the shower, and hadn't even bothered to put a towel on.

She leaned back against the wall, her heart pounding at the eyeful of the naked iron dragon slayer that she'd just gotten. _Oh my..._ He was so big and muscular and he was quite - well, here Levy's well read mind came up with lots of interesting euphemisms.

She waited a few minutes to calm down before approaching his actual window and knocking timidly on the glass.

It opened within seconds.

"I knew it was you out there, shrimp," he said gruffly but his grin belied his words and tone. "Never took you for the peeping type."

She wanted to melt into the ground. Her face flashed hot in embarrassment,. What was she _doing?_

"Come on in here," he said, and opened up the window all the way. He had put on what she assumed must be what he used for pajamas, an old cut off black t-shirt and a pair of cut off shorts that had seen better days. He reached out one hand to help her up, but Levy wrote "stairs" in the air and gracefully climbed up her solid letters.

Within moments she was inside his hotel room, or exactly where she wanted to be. Or so she had thought ten minutes ago.

She glanced around the room, and saw Lily passed out on his bed, his tiny stomach rising and falling with each breath.

"He drank too much," Gajeel said softly, indicating the unconscious cat with his thumb. "Poor guy's a lightweight. Had to bring him back here and tuck him in."

She couldn't help but grin at the thought.

"So, why are you here, Levy?"

He said her name. Not one of the half dozen nicknames he had for her. It caught her off guard.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just wanted to see you."

Nervously, she dropped onto the chair in the corner, suddenly fascinated with the toenails peeking out from her sandals.

She could _hear_ his smirk. She was blushing so hard she just wanted to die. Oh, why had she come here?

And then he knelt down beside her, and touched his hand to her arm. Her arm burned at the unexpected contact. She'd remember that feeling for a thousand years.

"In the light of day you're pretty, shrimp, but in the dark of night you're downright gorgeous," he whispered. "Took you a lot of guts to walk into the wolf's den."

"Gajeel," she whimpered, still mortified. She took a deep, fortifying breath, and jumped off the cliff.

"You know I like you, don't you?"

"Yeah, and hell if I know why," he said, stroking his thumb against her arm. "I'm a big dumb lug and you're a pretty bookworm. I'm a guy that humiliated you to get revenge against your guild. I'm one ugly, mean sonofabitch and you're a goddamn rose."

As he spoke, he was leaning in closer and closer to her, until their faces were inches apart. Levy's pulse was going ninety miles an hour and her lower lip trembled.

"I don't know why either," she admitted, "although I don't think you're dumb and you're part of Fairy Tail now, and I think you're sort of cu-."

He didn't let her continue because he kissed her.

Levy had jumped off the cliff, but instead of pushing her or holding her back, Gajeel had jumped off with her.

And now they were flying, breaking through the clouds together.

She began to hum low in her throat as he shifted his arm up to her neck, cradling her as he kissed her thoroughly.

"Show me a way," he said roughly when he broke the kiss. "A way this is gonna work. I don't see how this could ever go anywhere between us, shrimp. You're a light in the darkness..."

She decided to be honest. "I think... I feel more free around you." Levy wasn't sure how to express what she felt around him. "I was living a pretty nonexistent love life, and I felt like I could never take Jet or Droy because one or the other of them would feel bad. But you... you weren't off limits."

He raised an eyebrow, incredulous. "So you couldn't hurt either one of them, but you can hurt both of 'em at the same time?"

"Yes," she said seriously, "because they're not you."

And she she said it, she realized she'd found the truth. She loved Gajeel because he was _Gajeel_, all his scars and brooding and baggage included.

He kissed her again, for a long time, roaming his hands along her arms and her shoulders. He shifted her up and took the chair for himself, setting her down on his lap while he nibbled around her ears, her neck, her collarbone.

She could have stayed like that forever with him, but eventually he sighed and disengaged his mouth, although he seemed reluctant.

"You'd better go, shrimp," he said, looking at her with half lidded eyes. "I don't know how much longer I can control myself and I don't know when that cat is going to wake up again.

She nodded and they both stood up, shaking, but then she gave him one last hug and started toward the open window, ready to write herself some stairs again.

"You could go through the door," Gajeel observed.

She looked at him and then looked at the door. "But then everyone will see," she protested.

"So? Didn't we just decide that you're my girl with all that making out?"

She looked at him, startled, amazingly happy at the words he had just uttered.

_She was Gajeel's girl now._

She straightened herself out, closed the window, and walked toward the door of the hotel room with all the dignity she could muster. He followed her, and caught her as she was opening the door for one last kiss, lifting her tiny frame and bending her backwards.

"I will see you tomorrow," she whispered. "I'll be cheering for you. Good luck."

"And after I mop the floor with everyone in the competition, you wanna go to dinner or something?" he asked with another devilish grin.

"Yes," she said, and then matched him with a cheeky grin of her own. "But if you lose I'll have to punish you."

"Hah! I ain't gonna lose, shrimp." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "But I'll take any kind of punishment you want to give me. Goodnight, Levy."

She giggled and waved goodbye to him, practically skipping down the hallway.

She had finally broken through.


	14. Mirajane: Hearts Connected

**A lot of folks have asked where you can find trance music. It's easy! It's available for free in podcast form. I use www dot livesets dot us (replace the dot with .) and I regularly listen to Trance around the World with Above and Beyond, A State of Trance from Armin van Buuren, Future Sound of Egypt by Aly and Fila, and Vonyk Sessions with Paul Van Dyke. Other good Djs are Tiesto, Marcus Shultz, and Paul Oakenfold. Totally free, totally legal, and totally awesome. **

**This is a very new tune that's been floating around all the trance radio shows lately. Cathy Burton & Omnia - Hearts Connected. This is another one that begs to have a music video made of it.**

**Also, look for my self parody "Fairy Tail Beer" - it hasn't gotten any love yet and that makes me sad.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and favorites of this story so far. I'm going to keep writing mini chapters as long as I have song inspiration.**

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><p>It wasn't every day that a person could see her little brother fall in love.<p>

Watching Elfman and Evergreen bicker,she couldn't help but smile. It was their way of flirting. She saw a picture there - a full image with lots of nieces and nephews for herself. Someday. They were both still in denial about it. She'd convinced the rest of Team Laxus to help her out with that little project, to which they were all more than happy to cooperate.

Every argument drew them closer. Soon...

Mirajane loved matchmaking. She loved picking out the potential couples and doing everything she could to get them together. Bisca and Alzac had been her biggest success story, and her only regret of Tenrou Island incident was missing that particular project come to fruition.

Oh well. She had lots of others to pick on!

Erza and... Mystogan. That was not one she'd expected and not one she'd had a hand in, for that matter. But the way they'd reacted against each other ever since the Grand Magic Games was quite interesting. He was still as mysterious as ever, but with Erza's strength, there was a future that was so bright that she could feel it in her soul.

"May I have a martini, Miss Mirajane?" a smooth voice asked. "Shaken, not stirred."

Mirajane suddenly found herself flustered at the polite request from Fried, who had arrived at the bar with Laxus.

"Of course," she said, recovering quickly.

"I'll take a whiskey on the rocks," Laxus said, eying his bodyguard.

And now Mirajane had to smile at the gentle rivalry that had formed between those two for her affections. Others in Fairy Tail had trouble believing that particular group was really calmed down for good, but no matter how hard seemed, they all had to put their trust and faith in one another. They needed to be by each other's sides and at each other's backs in this business.

"Here you go," she said, presenting the two men's drinks at the same time. She delivered the alcohol with a saucy, intentional swish of her hips, which did not go unnoticed from the two males. She hadn't been a model for nothing.

Over Fried's shoulder, she saw Juvia devouring Gray with her eyes, while Gray and Natsu pretended not to fight each other while Erza was in earshot. Suddenly, Juvia reached forward to kiss Gray on the cheek before running off blushing.

Amazing how hearts could be connected, even through all the tragedy.

Gray was rubbing his cheek and staring after the water mage dumbly. Natsu took advantage of his distraction and socked him in the stomach when Erza was busy necking with Mystogan over in a quiet corner.

Not far away, Levy was sitting on Gajeel's lap, reading him something from a book. They were the next one from Mirajane's handpicked matchmaking to come to near fruition - it hadn't been a coincidence that during the S rank exams, Mirajane had commented within earshot of Gajeel that it was _such a shame_ Levy would be stuck with either Jet or Droy.

Now, there was a light in the dragon slayer's face that had been missing before. Levy was his safety net, there to catch him if he ever fell into the darkness again. She whispered something cheekily into his ear, and he gave her a playful smack on the rump in exchange.

The last of the couples under her cultivation was of course Natsu and Lucy. There they were, the former gleefully burning like a lamp at his triumph over Gray, the latter arguing with him over punching their friend in the stomach. They too flirted by arguing. But Lucy was to Natsu what he'd missed ever since his father abandoned him: a home. And Natsu was the spark of fire that Lucy needed to reach her true potential.

So many hearts connected. Mirajane smiled happily to herself.

"Another!" Laxus roared, having chugged his whiskey. Fried too had gracefully downed his martini.

"Another for me as well, Miss Mirajane," he said.

They both looked at her, a certain glint in her eyes.

Maybe she needed to worry about the connections of her own heart for a while. It looked like all of her schemes would progress along without further interference for a while.

She leaned over the bar, pushing her cleavage together for maximum effect, and batted her eyelashes flirtatiously.

"Coming right up," she said, loving her life and loving every minute of her job.

Now, she just had to find the perfect person for Lisanna, and her duty as the big sister would be complete.


	15. Ultear Meredy and Jellal: The Spell

**AN: Probably the most ambitious of these little sketches yet. This could actually be a full fledged one shot, honestly. The trance tune is "The Spell" by Solarstone Feat. Clare Stagg. Very rare in that it is in a minor mode (Phrygian, if I'm remembering my music theory correctly.) Super catchy tune.**

**As for Ultear and Meredy's relationship in this, I didn't want to imply straight up yuri, but I also think they're about as close as two human beings can be to each other at this point. It's mother and child and sisterly and something way, way beyond friendship. Interpret it as you will.**

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><p>Breaking into the prison of the Council was no easy feat. After Ultear had made her decision to free Jellal, it took her and Meredy many months of planning and careful monitoring of the schedules of the guards. Finally, she found her chance when one of the prison guard's wives went into labor early, leaving the high security magical prison slightly understaffed for a mere half hour while they called in a backup guard late in the evening.<p>

"Are we ready?" Ultear asked, squeezing Meredy's hand.

The younger girl nodded, and then started her sensory linking magic. They had been practicing the link, so that Meredy would act as a second pair of eyes and ears while Ultear broke into the prison.

Ultear felt her senses merge with Meredy, and Meredy squeaked for a moment as she always did, prompting Ultear to cover her mouth with her finger. She felt the sensation of a finger on her own lips, even as she warned softly, "Hush."

Then she stepped away from Meredy, blending into the shadows of the road, ready to break some magical alarms. She'd improved her own time magic to the point where she could literally slice through time, slowing it down and passing through the world like a wraith.

"Do you see what I see?" Meredy asked, inside her mind. The other girl's magic had improved as well. They had not spent their time after the Tenrou island incident idle; they had discovered that learning to love and be loved was more liberating to magic than any other training they could have done.

"Do you hear what I hear? Do you feel what I feel?"

"Yes," Ultear thought back, and started to make her way toward the prison.

Stop.

The warning was not so much a spoken word as it was an impulse, and Ultear obeyed just in time, as one of the prison patrols was approaching. She sliced time further and slipped back into the trees beside the road, unseen.

The comforting presence of Meredy in her mind gave her courage. With the other girl there, she had something to feel the empty void in her soul that always clung to her from the shadows. There were some days, early in their friendship after their escape from the island, that they had stayed linked for hours, almost like holding hands or having loving arms wrapped around them, grateful to have someone there to keep them bound to the earth, to stop the evil darkness from stealing their souls again.

"All clear," Meredy mentally signaled. Ultear crept out from the shadows again, and began to slice time.

She had gotten _good._ Not only could she bend time to her will, she could now force it to do loops. It was a simple matter to lock the prison alarm in a short term closed, time-like loop, while she strolled into the back door of the prison as if she owned the place. She kept the alarm in its loop; she had enough magic power to hold it for hours, but she had many more alarms to go. The prison supposedly allowed no magic used within its walls, but the flaw was that the barriers were within the alarms themselves. Just locking the alarms into loops, one by one, permitted her to use her time magic to slice her way to the next alarm, like climbing a ladder.

Her connection to Meredy prompted her to keep going, providing her the courage she needed. Maguilty link was a far cry from the crude mind control she and Jellal had used on others over the years, or the thought projections they used for distance interactions.

A few more alarms and locks, a few tiptoes behind walls, and a whispered all clear from Meredy.

Then she was at Jellal's cell.

She locked the space around guard there into a closed loop, and he never even noticed she was there. Her magic still could not quite affect living things directly, but could influence the space directly around them as she saw fit, and more importantly, could affect their magical abilities.

Seeing Jellal caused a rush of emotions she couldn't identity fully. His cell had been upgraded over the last year, compared to when he'd first been imprisoned. He _was_ a former Wizard Saint, after all. He had a small water closet and a separate shower area to give him privacy, a desk and chair, and a small cot with a blanket and pillow. He was sitting at the desk, surrounded by books, scratching something with a quill pen on parchment.

Despite his rather opulent quarters, there was no doubt he was still a prisoner. He was held by enchanted lacrima chains on both his ankles and his hands which flickered, ghostly, against the background. It looked as though he was permitted to move freely within his cell, but any attempt to exit would trigger several dozen alarms.

She closed her eyes for a few moments, suddenly feeling doubts. She remembered the spells. The lies, the deceit, the terror. Owning him and forcing him to commit heinous acts against his will and his kind, gentle nature.

She took a deep breath, fighting for control. They had cut the cords - no one was anyone's puppet any more. And she would fight off anyone who tried to use a spell to control him, or anyone, ever again.

Jellal deserved the same chance.

She locked time in the room, setting the lacrima alarms into a loop. Only then did she reveal herself to the fallen mage sitting at his desk

"Jellal," she whispered, trying not to make too much noise.

He immediately jerked up, and his eyes widened when he saw her standing there.

"Ultear?" he said, his voice croaking from disuse.

"I've come to rescue you," she said, and began picking the lock. "Come, there is not much time, and that's saying something for me."

He stared at her in open mouthed astonishment as she easily slid the cell door without triggering any alarms.

"Why?' he asked.

"I don't believe in scapegoats," she answered simply. She did not step inside the cell; as it was, it would likely detect as soon as Jellal left. She didn't want a dramatic prison break when a nice, silence one would server them better. "Gather your things, we must hurry."

Without any further prompting, he scrambled to gather a sheaf of papers. She was surprised when he left all his books behind, but she supposed those must belong to the prison. Once he had the papers tucked away in his arms, she reached into the cell and grabbed his hand.

She used her magic to return the lacrima chains to a time when they were merely crystalline rocks. They crumbled to the floor.

As soon as she pulled him across the threshold, a lacrima alarm triggered someplace. At least it was only one. Still, she took the time to properly cancel her spells and to restore the cell door to its prior state, before she had picked the lock. The chains reformed, and a second alarm started when they detected their prisoner was missing.

"Come," she said, and pulled him along the hallway.

"A light has turned on in the main tower's alarm center," Meredy warned her through their link, and through Meredy's eyes Ultear was able to see the commotion they had caused already. The prison had reacted faster than she had expected.

"I'm going to try slicing time with Jellal," she replied back. She hoped it would work, but if there was one thing she trusted, it was her own power.

No spells necessary; time was hers to command. She felt him sliding along with her. Good, it was working.

She pulled him with her, slicing time and moving them faster and faster as time around her moved ever slower. The guards scrambling were no match for them as they raced by in a blur. As she passed by her alarms, she freed them from their time loops, to distract them further.

As they exited the prison from the back door, where there was only one guard left blissfully locked in time, she gave a small smirk as she saw all the auxiliary guards from the outside walls rushing inside, confused by the interior alarms going off without anything from the exterior. Quite possibly they thought someone had tunneled in.

Outside the grounds, she freed the last guard from his loop, before she rejoined Meredy.

"Mission accomplished," she croaked, almost out of mana from containing so much time at once.

Meredy broke their sensory link, and Ultear felt the loss keenly. But she had Meredy's real hand within hers, as they fled through the woods, a silent Jellal in tow. Ultear had just enough magic left to constantly restore the forest to the time before they went through it, so they left no detectable trail.

They kept running for hours through the night, only pausing to rest once they'd reached a boat that the girls had prepared, hidden away from the endless spies of the magic council. Out on the ocean, they were safe for the moment.

They lay in the bottom of the boat, unable to move from sheer exhaustion. Ultear trailed her fingertips in the water, however, feeling the love from her mother running through her, reaffirming that she had made the right decision.

They all slept for a long, long time.

The next day, they took turns rowing their way toward the shore. Meredy and Ultear had not packed much by way of supplies in their getaway boat, but they all had a few drinks of water and a few bites to eat.

"I never expected you to care enough to rescue me," Jellal said, resting from his turn. "I'm used to being the scapegoat for my friends. I'd come to the conclusion that it was my fate in life."

"Fool," Ultear said sharply, but there was no venom in the word. "Our fate was never ours to decide in the first place. Our destinies were ripped from our hands the moment we were singled out as children."

They were silent for a moment.

Finally, Jellal said in a quiet voice, "How is Erza?"

Ultear had been dreading that question, but she felt no reason to hide the truth from the abused mage in front of her. Apparently, no one had told Jellal about the incidents with Acknologia. "She, along with the majority of Fairy Tail, disappeared suddenly during their S rank exams due to an attack from Zeref, a little under a year ago."

Jellal stared off into the distant horizon, absorbing that information.

"Black magic," he said after a long time. "It'll push you to the front, and then stab you in the back."

Ultear laughed, a bitter sound, and Meredy smiled even as she rowed. "So damn true. I've gained nothing but a lot of misery and heartache from being a dark mage. I want to try giving a shot at being on the right side of the law, but Meredy and I are still fugitives, and now so are you."

"Maybe this is karma then," Jellal said, and fingered the sheaf of papers he'd brought with him from the prison. "When I was in jail, I felt like I was losing my mind, and only the thought of Erza being safe finally kept me going... Especially after I remembered everything." Ultear politely said nothing as tears began to fall onto the sheaf of papers. They were all letters to Erza, letters he'd never been allowed to send. Full of apologies, full of regrets, full of admiration for her.

Ultear embraced him, however, when the tears turned into wracking sobs of anguish over the loss of his childhood friend. She must have been his one light in the darkness in prison.

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><p>Once they had reached shore and destroyed the boat, they returned to the simple home that Meredy and Ultear had been sharing for the last year or so. It was tucked away deep withing the forests of Fiore, but more importantly, it was built on a natural deposit of a curious mineral that screened out magic, rendering the hideout virtually undetectable to the magic council.<p>

The house was small, with only a single bedroom and, Jellal noted, a single bed within it. Meredy and Ultear sure had become close while he was in prison, he thought, but kept his questions to himself.

They sat around the table in the main room, drinking freshly made tea and eating a hot meal courtesy of Meredy. The entire thing felt domestic and cozy.

"We can build a second bedroom for you," Ultear said, noticing his discomfort at the close quarters.

"I don't know how long I should stay here, honestly." He stared at his mug of hot tea. "I don't want to endanger you two, especially after you went through all that effort to rescue me."

Ultear scoffed at him. "And where would you go? Fairy Tail is reduced to nothing. The council will not bother imprisoning you a second time and will probably issue a bounty for you, wanting you dead. Even your Erza is gone." She stared directly at him. "The most prudent course of action would be for us to stick together."

"And do what?"

It was Ultear's turn to look down. "Live. Heal. Grow stronger." She caressed the mug of tea idly. "To be honest, you were the last goal we had planned. Now that you're free, I'm not sure what we should do."

Meredy reached out to touch her friend's hand. "Maybe we should try to fight the evil still in the world," the younger girl said, and then looked at Jellal as well. "I don't want any more children to suffer as we did."

He closed his eyes. The darkest hours of his life were when he regained his memories - seeing the looks of utter hatred on Erza's face, killing his own friends with his own two hands, trying so desperately to unleash an evil upon the world simply for the sake of power. He would never have walked into the darkness of his own free will, and now that he had backed down and closed the page on that part of his life, he never wanted to see anyone suffer that way again.

"You're right," he said, lowering his head. "We need to atone for our sins somehow. Stamping out the darkness in this world may be the only hope we have. We should devote our lives to saving others as a means of punishing ourselves..."

"I think we've been punished enough," Ultear disagreed.

Jellal felt a yawning pit in his soul. A world without Erza in it was indeed a vast punishment.

The three mages sat quietly, each reflecting on the sorrows they'd faced, the emotional abuse they'd all endured throughout the years.

"A guild," Ultear said suddenly. "Let's form a guild."

"We can't exactly register a guild with the council," Meredy said, pursing her lips to hide her smile.

"I'm not joining another dark guild," Jellal said flatly.

Ultear was undeterred. "Who said anything about a dark guild? Who says that only dark guilds are unregistered?" She primly sipped her tea. "We can be an independent light guild. Black magic and light magic really only reflect what is going on in the caster's heart." She touched her hand to her heart to emphasize her words.

"So a light guild made up of criminal mages trying to atone for their sins," Jellal mused. The powers knew that he had several lives to atone for. "Or in one of the old tongues, a crime sorciére."

Ultear nodded. "We will survive, and walk into the light together."

The three former dark mages placed their hands together in the center of the table, forming a pact that very day, vowing to fight the seductive lure of dark power, and stop anyone from binding children to the spells of dark magic again.


	16. Jellal: The Atmosphere

**More Jellal angst. I really think he's becoming my favorite character, in a lot of ways. Maybe I can get my husband to cosplay him. (Maybe. I got him to do Eagle Vision once...)**

**This tune has been around since last fall: Kid Alien – The Atmosphere. Look for the Klauss Goulart & Mark Sixma's Deep Universe Remix. Very emotional and mysterious. Like Jellal!**

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><p>It had been one year since Jellal found out that Erza disappeared.<p>

Crime Sorciére was a great success. The Guild Council had no idea who was systematically destroying the dark guilds who operated outside of the law, one by one, but if they suspected Jellal was involved, they had no means of showing it.

The work that he, Ultear, and Meredy were doing was good work. Some days, he honestly felt that he was atoning for his sins, that if he worked hard enough and saved enough children he might someday be cleansed of the blood that stained his hands.

Other days, when he was standing atop a pile of bodies - Crime Sorciére often found it necessary to kill their most dangerous foes - he felt more alienated than ever.

Whenever the finished a job, they retreated to the small house that Ultear and Meredy had built. He'd helped them with the second bedroom. It was primitive - a far cry from the palace of luxury he'd lived in at the Tower of Paradise - but cozy, and more secure than anywhere else they could choose to live.

He splashed his face with water from the basin he kept him his room; there was only one bathroom, and Ultear or Meredy could be in there for ages in the morning. He stared at his face in the mirror.

He was not even twenty three years old yet, but his eyes had aged far beyond that. Small worry lines creased his forehead. He had been a man of many faces, he mused, touching the tattoo that had marked his face as long as he could remember. Someone had once told him that it was a sign of royalty, and perhaps he had taken that to heart.

Days like this he felt as though he were not even tied to the earth as a human, let alone a noble. He felt disconnected, floating outside of time and space. He had been so many different men in one short lifetime already, that perhaps it was not unusual for him to have a mid morning identity crisis while shaving into an ice cold basin while staring into a cracked mirror in the middle of the woods.

It was not strange to feel slightly out of place as he put on mage's robes that actually were fit for a king, even as he tucked a ragged quilt over the squeaky bed he'd managed to drag to their hideout.

He was eager to go outside. The crisp snow was pure, and somehow he couldn't resist the winter.

"Where is our mission today?" he asked his comrades. Ultear and Meredy held hands as they trudged through the snow. He felt a sharp pang of jealousy; they didn't _need_ him. He was just there because Ultear had believed she owed him one, and they had formed a pact to prevent any more children from falling prey to the dark guilds and cults that the manage council could never quite keep at bay.

But still, they chose to keep him around even after they had rescued him, so that had to count for something.

"We'll be investigating rumors of a dark guild forming on the outskirts of Crocus," Meredy said. She had grown from a petite teenager into a very lovely young woman over the years, and she had also softened her formal way of speaking when discussing enemies. She had been almost clinical about it, Ultear had told him, to the point of seeming like a lacrima robot. Now she valued human life and, like the other two, did her best to avoid taking it.

"Right by the capital city, eh?" he mused, glancing over at the horizon where the sea glimmered. "That's pretty audacious."

"Especially with the Grand Magic Games coming up," Ultear agreed.

Unbidden, an image of Erza came into his mind. She was lost, presumed dead, like much of the missing Fairy Tail guild. His initial grief had waned over time, but every once in a while he imagined what she would think of him, in his current life.

Would she let him know that he was not forgotten by her, too?

He had prayed often in those early days, to gods and goddesses he had hitherto never believed in, desperate to have Erza back. He somehow doubted he would ever completely get over the Titania. If she returned, then maybe should could somehow set him free.

They reached their boat, and as always, they took turns paddling the single set of oars. During his turn, he let himself get completely lost in the rhythm and his thoughts. He was everyone, he was no one. He imaged Erza with him, perhaps snuggled in front of him, joining him in his toil and his trance, disconnected from the atmosphere. He would live Erza, see only Erza, breathe in Erza.

But of course, after a time he had to come back to reality. She was gone and there was only him, paddling a boat, with two more former dark mages behind him, blissfully napping together in the sunshine.


	17. Juvia: Sink into Me

**So funny story, I burned a CD with last week's trance radio shows (A State of Trance and Trance around the World), but for some reason the CD burn got screwed up and my car couldn't play it. Ugh. I have an hour long commute to and from classes, and I _need_ my trance music. So I had to pop in an old CD from last November to not fall asleep on the way home, and this song was on it... I think it was A State of Trance 533. That's also how I re-heard Jellal's "The Atmosphere." Erza's "Be Your Sound" is also in that episode. I'd never paid attention to the lyrics to this song before, but then I heard the world "ocean" and I got curious. **

**Yup, it's a Juvia song, all right! Cardinal Featuring Arielle Maren – Sink Into Me. Google it and it pops right up.**

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><p>Juvia woke up confused sometimes.<p>

Not about Gray, of course. Her love for him as strong as ever. The thought of his touch was irresistible, and she often fantasized about running her fingers over those strong abs, massaging those broad shoulders, dancing across his neck, stroking his cheek... and of course, having him do the same to her. She still remembered the wonderful burning sensation where he'd touched her a few times. She had made the childish vow "I shall never wash this hand!" the first time, but of course that was impracticable for anyone, especially a water mage.

But when she woke up, and he was not there, she would feel a brief confusion, and then a gentle sadness. It was reconciling her imagination with reality that confused her.

She loved the way he smelled. He was a surprisingly clean person, although he eschewed some of the smellier body sprays that a few men of her acquaintance had chosen, instead sticking with a light, clean body wash and showering daily. She was not a dragon slayer, but his scent in the air still lingered on if she concentrated on it enough.

She could remember that smell in the middle of the night, and sigh to herself.

He was there with her in her dreams, although by day he barely spoke a word to her outside of business. She would wake up, drenched in sweat, searching for him in her darkened room in Fairy Hills, but of course he was not there. All she could see was a reflection of the street lights from outside the dorm.

Still, she had a small secret she kept to herself, not even telling Gray, or especially any of her rivals for his affections. When she had been joined with him on Tenrou Island via Maguilty Link, she had felt something within his heart, something that not even he was aware of. It had lit a fire within her soul - the knowledge that he, too, was affected by her touch in the same way that she was - that the few times they'd shared contact outside of a combat situation, his heart had beat as wildly as hers, even as he maintained his icy control.

Gray was not a man to show his emotions, even to his dearest friends. He was as emotionally private as he was physically public.

So Juvia knew not to expect any grand declarations of love from him, now. But thanks to Maguilty Link, she knew that she had a chance. Deep down, part of him felt the same.

She envisioned them together - an ocean of one. Maybe like an iceberg floating in the sea. She would crash over him, and he would sink into her... Oooh, she liked that analogy.

She blushed fiercely. Her heart went pitter patter, even as she stared into the shadows of her room.

Someday. Someday she would be in his arms. She felt a shiver run down her spine at the thought.

"Gray-sama," she whispered, reaching out her hand, then bringing it close to her heart.

She slept, and dreamed of an iceberg in the ocean, washed by the waves.


	18. Lisanna: Suddenly Summer

**Hello everyone! Just a very short sketch for this one. I finished a brutal four week summer session of Javascript boot camp, and I've been working on my Cana/Bacchus fic MUI in my free time. However, this song is just too appropriate for Lisanna and Natsu, post-Edolas. (Especially the punnyness of "summer" leaving her... Natsu's name means summer in Japanese.) This is Armin van Buuren featuring Ana Criado, with _Suddenly Summer_. It's all over YouTube in various remix formations.**

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><p>Lisanna couldn't help but be a little jealous of Lucy.<p>

Oh, she'd gotten over her crush on Natsu while in Edolas, especially since Edo-Natsu was firmly kept under Edo-Lucy's heel, and if anyone else in the guild had thought about touching him, they'd end up in a wrestler's choke hold. She'd moved on, willing to lose that far. Edo-Lucy was quite scary.

After the initial joy and gratefulness of meeting her brother and sister again in Earthland, she had to come to terms with the fact that Natsu had also moved on in the same way. Earthland's Lucy was his partner. He had replaced Lisanna, although he'd never think of it like that.

When they returned to Earthland, after the big reunion party, she had time on her hands to ponder the could-haves and what-ifs. Did she want Natsu back? She felt, if she had really wanted his love, she could have fought and had a chance. He still cared for her greatly, and treated her with awe, almost reverence, now that he had her back in Earthland's Fairy Tail.

But that thought only made her feel a little sour inside. It would pain Natsu, confuse him, and quite possibly wreck their friendship if she pushed him too hard. He _loved_ Lucy, even though he failed to realize it, and Earthland's Lucy was a good person. (Much nicer than her Edolas counterpart.) She was also good for Natsu in many ways; she provided him something precious to protect, but was also strong enough in her own right to protect him when he really needed it. They were a good team.

Still, Lisanna couldn't help but feel as though her summer had moved on... Natsu was gone. All that she had known, in Earthland and Edolas, was gone. She was in a world with no true home, other than the comfort of her brother and sister who had changed so much they almost seemed like strangers in some ways. She had been denied years of memories with them all here in Earthland. It was lonely, in a way that no one else could possibly understand.

So, she allowed herself one good cry about Natsu, one night. Just one. Her future, her hopes, were all dashed because suddenly summer was gone.

As she stared up at the moonlight, the tears beginning to dry on her cheeks, she knew that thought was selfish, and wrong. In many ways, she was actually free. Natsu had Lucy, but she had endless possibilities and endless futures, as the summer of her youth moved along to the cooler beginnings of autumn.


	19. Cana and Macao: Letting Go

****This song is _Dimension ft. Arielle Maren – Letti__ng Go – _look for the EDU remix on YouTube.****

**I've been pouring all my energy over into _Magic Under the Influenc_e, but something about Cana has been nagging me, and I think these song lyrics encapsulate a lot of what she must have gone through when she returned from Tenrou Island only to discover that Macao was almost fifty.**

**If you haven't read it yet, _Magic Under the Influence_ is my Cana x Bacchus epic. *nudge, nudge* I hope Mashima brings him back!**

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><p>Cana had loved Macao ever since she was little.<p>

Part of it, she knew, was a result of her "daddy issues" - with Gildarts gone so frequently, and him not even knowing that she was his daughter, she sought a father figure to love her in the older men she was closest to. It was Macao who had slipped her drinks when she was fourteen, with a wink; it was Macao who had treated her like a young lady instead of just another kid at Fairy Tail. She had been genuinely sorry when his wife left him, but also secretly thrilled because it meant he was _single_ and he might need another wife someday.

Macao had known about her little crush and indulged her to some extent, flirting with her once she was old enough and teasing her. He was Gildarts' age, old enough to be her father, and if he had known that Gildarts _was_ her father, he might have kept her at more of a distance.

He never crossed the line with her, but for his own reasons. For all that she viewed him as the man who embodied her every fantasy of a strong, powerful male, he would always see her as Cana-chan, the little sprite who'd showed up on the front steps of Fairy Tail, waiting for Gildarts Clives. It was him, along with Wakaba, who had nurtured her latent talents and showed her that her own magic was simply waiting to be unlocked. It was Macao who had taught her to understand the cards.

And yet, it was after they returned from Tenrou Island and discovered that Earthland had experienced seven years while they were locked within the spell, that Cana had to finally let go.

Macao, as the fourth Master, was an old man. He still still aging nicely, but the age gap had widened and he was practically old enough to be her _grandfather_ now. He was still the Macao she had loved, but she realized it was time to _let go._

She had to get drunk first, though. As if she had actually broken up with the man. It hurt. It hurt a lot.

"Why so gloomy, Cana?" Mirajane asked, stirring a martini while Kinana was filling beers for the other returning members. They'd been partying for days in the tiny tavern that Fairy Tail now occupied.

"In this life of complications," Cana said dreamily, taking a swig of her wine, "we have to try to face the light. If there's any hope, we can recover when we learn to let go..."

"That's right," Mirajane agreed with a big smile. "Life is uncomplicated if we just learn to let go."

It was as if a weight fell off Cana's shoulders. She felt herself putting away the childish love for Macao, as if setting a beloved photograph into a storage box. She might take it out to examine it once in a while, but the emotions from that picture had faded.

Cana chugged the rest of her wine all at once, then stared at the far wall uneasily.

"I think I need to go on a date, Mira," Cana said quietly. "I wonder how my old boyfriends aged..." I wonder if they remember me at all, Cana added in her mind. Had they mourned her for seven years? Or had they viewed her as she had viewed them, pleasant interludes while she waited for her one "true love" to realize he was destined for her? A shame... maybe one of them had been her true love all along. Or maybe he was out there, waiting...

"Why don't you give them a visit and fight out?" Mirajane suggested, picking up Cana's empty glass and swiping down the bar. "I'm sure they'll be glad to know you're alive."

Cana stood up, a little wobbly since she'd been consuming drinks since the moment she woke up, and slipped her purse over her shoulder.

"I think I'll do that," she agreed.

She walked out of the guild, a smile on her face.


	20. Aries and Loke: Fall With Me

**A bit of a break from Magic under the Influence (the next chapter should be up soon, don't worry!) This song is _Ben Gold featuring The Glass Child - Fall With Me._ This song could be a music video about celestial spirits, but I really think it suits the way Aries feels about Loke. So here we go.**

**Happy New Year, everyone!**

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><p>The day that Lucy announced her engagement to Natsu, Aries was there, a shoulder for Loke to cry on. Lucy had shyly invited all her summons to an engagement party, using all her magic to summon them all at once. Loke had grumbled a lot and threatened bodily harm to Natsu if he hurt Lucy, but bottled up his real emotions until they'd returned to the celestial realm a few minutes later.<p>

Shortly after they returned, Aries found him alone on one of the floating squares in the central courtyard of the celestial kingdom. She'd sat down next to him, given him a friendly pat on the back, and the next thing she knew Loke had began sobbing onto her shoulder.

She hadn't realized how much he loved Lucy. Well, they _all _loved her deeply – she was well known as the best stellar spirit to have walked upon Earthland, and her genuine bond and compassion with the spirits was so great that even the Celestial King revered her. But Loke had always loved her in a different way than the rest of them, probably because he retained the most humanity of them.

He must have always secretly held out the hope that she could choose him over Natsu. But in the end, their mistress was a human, and they were Celestial Spirits. Lucy would be killed, or grow old and die, and they would be as they were now – perfect, immortal.

"We are the stars," she whispered against his head as he cried. She, too, shared a special bond with Loke – he'd never show this much emotion or weakness with anyone else. He'd give a faint grin and press on, never letting the pain he felt inside show beyond his eyes. "It's who we are, and all we're made to be."

Despite being friend-zoned by him for centuries, Aries couldn't help but love the lion she embraced in her arms. If he knew of her affection, he chose not to pursue it, which she always took as a sign of respect from him.

"Lucy will be happy with him," she said, petting him as if he really was a cat. "And more than anything else, you want her to be happy."

"Yes," Loke said quietly. He was calming down now.

Aries stared at the sky above them, the tiny cold lights of millions of world shining down on them. The sky in the celestial realm was always dark, full of starlight – to see the sun, they had to be summoned to Earthland. It was both a blessing and a curse.

"The night is ours," she whispered, and pulled him up into a hug, patting his back gently. "And here, we're free."

Loke took it as a cue, and then sat up under his own power, breaking their contact. That one good cry would be all he allowed himself over the situation, Aries knew. And he would never let Lucy know how much it had hurt for him to lose to Natsu.

The two stellar spirits sat in silence then, beside each other, lost in their private thoughts. Aries didn't think of trying to catch him on the rebound – he'd always been free with his affections, and she'd been through this countless times before with their various mistresses. (Although _not _with Karen. He hadn't liked Karen very much at all – none of them had.)

Every time, he'd mope for a while, and then be back to normal in a few days. A new Earthland girl would catch his eye and he'd be smarming his way into her heart.

Just once, couldn't he let Aries be the one he chose? Unlike the humans and stellar spirit mages he so often fell for, _she _would never choose another. She would never break his heart and leave him behind.

"Fall with me," she murmured, mostly to herself.

"Hmm?"

She held her hands above her head, reaching out for the emptiness above them. Then she brought her arms close to her heart, as if embracing the whole sky and its silent diamonds.

Then she pointed out their constellations, both visible in the sky, not too far apart from each other, with only Taurus and Gemini separating them.

"We fade into the sky, to the humans," she said, and swept her arm in an arc. "We're just part of the two lines that cross and bend, the path of the sun and the moon." Then she realized she wasn't making any sense. It was hard to explain what she was feeling. "I'm sorry," she said, turning away.

"No, it's fine," he said, and joined her in throwing open his arms wide open, trying to gather the sky into his hands.

They both fell back onto the floating square, still not touching, but still as close as two beings could be.

After a time, Loke sat up with another sigh.

"Thank you," he said, and then pinched the bridge of his nose with his classes. "I've got to stop doing this to myself."

"No, no," Aries disagreed, and sat up as well, shuffling closer to him. "It's part of what makes you you."

"What, getting my heart broken every decade or so?"

She shook her head violently. "No, I'm sorry. I meant... you have so much love to give, no one person could ever hold all of it."

She was being polite, of course. And lying. If Loke ever gave _her _all of his love, she would find a way to consume it all.

"Heh," he said, and gave her a grin. But the light was still missing from his eyes, and would be for some time. This loss had really hurt him hard.

"The engagement party is in one Earth day," he said, and stood up, brushing off his spotless pants. "Do you feel strong enough to open your own gate to go?"

"Mmm, yes" Aries said, blushing. She'd been practicing and was now strong enough to open her own gate for brief periods of time on Earthland. Surely she could handle it for the duration of the engagement party.

"Well, it seems I'm going to need to find a date," Loke said, deliberately not looking at her, rubbing the back of his neck. Thinking about it seriously. "I wonder if Lyra is up for -"

"I'll go," she interjected, then clapped her hands over her mouth. She hadn't meant to sound so eager.

"Eh?"

She took a deep breath. She was determined to be his next and _last _rebound for real.

"I'll be your date for the engagement party." She tugged down on her skirt nervously. "That is, if you don't mind."

He stared at her dumbly for a few moments, and then laughed.

"Sure."

And then he grabbed her hand and tugged her off the edge of the square, so that they were falling through the Celestial realm together.

_Fall with me._


	21. Juvia: Nothing Without Me

**This song is from last year and when it was released it was called "a stalker song" and for good reason. This is Markus Schultz featuring Ana Diaz, Nothing Without Me. Google it and give it a listen!**

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><p>At one point in time, Gray had considered giving Juvia a formal rejection.<p>

It wasn't that he didn't think she was pretty (she was gorgeous), or that he had another girl he like (he _did _think Lucy was cute, but the flame-haired idiot had dibs on her and you could cut their mutual romantic tension with a knife.) He was attracted to her, and yet repelled all at the same time in some ways,

It's because she could be downright _scary._

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><p><p>

They were in a corner of the guild when he told her.

"Juvia, I'm sorry. I just don't see you like that. I cannot accept your love."

"Gray-sama...?" The looked of pained confusion on her face hit him like a punch to the gut.

He looked away, gritting his teeth. He'd made this decision for both of their own sakes. He needed normalcy, and she needed to learn better socialization skills before she had a real relationship.

"I don't love you, Juvia," he said, probably lying to both of them at once. "I never will."

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Her eyes had glazed over. Her joyful grin, the grin that she reserved just for him, faded into the cool mask she had worn as one of the Elemental Four.

"Juvia hears the words from Gray-sama," she said softly, and Gray felt a huge aura of magical power building up around her. "But Juvia does not understand them."

Too late Gray realized that he was being targeted in her Water Lock.

"Shit, Juvia," he said, struggling to escape. He attempted to freeze the bubble of water, but she had gotten stronger since the first time they had battled, and his attempts were futile.

"All Juvia is," she said, her voice calm and deadly, "all that Juvia knows... is now hanging by the thinnest thread."

He felt a shiver run up his spine.

"If Gray-sama leaves, Juvia might as well be gone too. Be dead."

She peered close to the Water Lock bubble, and then opened it up with her hands, her body turning to water as she merged with it. Gray was still unable to move, but she grabbed his chin with one impossibly strong water hand.

"Juvia, don't do this," he pleaded.

"Juvia can be bad," she reminded him, and pinched his cheek so hard that Gray knew there would be a bruise later. "Juvia is the waterfall in your head. Juvia will never leave you alone."

She embraced him, her watery body somehow solid and firm within the prison where she held him.

"Juvia, snap out of it," he cried, struggling against the unearthly hug.

"Gray-sama knows we belong together. We are only strong together." The hug abruptly ended, as did the Water Lock, and Gray was dumped unceremoniously on the guild floor. He landed in a graceless puddle, rubbing his lower back. Juvia, however, remained as a towering monstress of water, as if the ocean itself had taken form to vent its wrath upon him.

He was speechless as she grew in volume, her watery body filling the volume of the guild, washing away all the Fairy Tail members who had been around him.

"If Gray-sama runs," she said ominously, "he'll be on the run forever. Juvia will haunt your mind forever."

Gray was floating away, drowning, as the suicidal flood Juvia had created in her rage reached a crescendo.

"You are nothing without me!"

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><p><p>

"Ack!"

Gray screamed as he woke up from the nap where he had dozed off on the table. The rest of the guild looked at him in surprise; he usually didn't have nightmares when he napped in public.

"Gray-sama?" a gentle voice said beside him, and there was Juvia, back to normal, her face wreathed in concern. "Is everything all right?"

He stared at her dully for a moment. This mild and meek woman was nothing like the monster his sub-conscious had conjured up.

The brief thoughts he had entertained of giving her a formal rejection fled. He couldn't hurt her like that. He was her first love, for whatever bloody reason she had fallen for him, and he felt obligated to at least respect her feelings.

Their mouths had been creeping closer, and he studied her features – smooth skin, little bow mouth, lovely almond shaped eyes, and that hair which was currently styled the way he liked it best, flowing down her shoulders in gentle waves. She was beautiful, and her lips hung partly open, revealing her pearl white teeth. He wondered what those lips might taste like.

_I will haunt your mind forever. You are nothing without me._

No, that wasn't Juvia of Fairy Tail. _That _had been Juvia of Phantom Lord.

Juvia of Fairy Tail was kind, gentle. Still strong, still terrifying to her enemies.

But most of all Juvia loved Gray, and if he rejected her, she would accept it even though it broke her heart.

Rejection was the farthest thing from his mind as he leaned in closer, fascinated by the faint shimmer on her lips. Chapstick? Would she taste like berries? Or warm and salty, like the ocean?

"Juvia," he murmured, and only when he realized how quiet the guild had grown did he remember that they were still in public. He froze.

"Kiss her!" someone (who sounded suspiciously like Erza) yelled from the back of the room, immediately killing the mood. Gray flushed red and scooted a few feet away. Juvia, too, looked away shyly, but her flaming red face indicated that her mind was filled with dozens of impure fantasies.

No, Gray decided with a sigh and a faint resigned smile toward the beautiful water mage. There was no way he could reject her.

After all, that would imply that _he_ didn't love her back, terrifying stalker personality and all.


	22. Pisces and the King: Jewel

**Hi everyone! This song came out late last year, and it's been an ear worm for me. However, it didn't really fit any couples so… um… I made one up. Like whoa. Total conjecture here. Pisces is a double avatar of a mother and child, but who could the father be? My guess is the Celestial King himself. (Wouldn't put it past Loke either, but I prefer him with Aries *cough*)**

**So here you go. This is Solarstone featuring Clare Staff, with **_**Jewel.**_** Absolutely gorgeous song, so definitely look it up on YouTube. (Since it's an earworm, I apologize in advance for it getting all stuck in your head and stuff.)**

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><p>Long ago, during the great Dragon Civil War that caused the Celestial King to choose humans who could form pacts with spirits to defend his realm and Earthland, all seemed to be lost. Pisces (not her real name, but one that would be given to her by humans later on), his consort, gave him what aid and comfort that she could… but she was a soldier, not a counselor.<p>

It was after a particularly heavy battle with many casualties incurred that she found her king and consort looking dispirited in his throne room. The dragons had taken a heavy toll on their forces – thousands of Nicola and other celestial beings had died, and several dozen of the human celestial spirit mages were gone as well.

"It seems I've lost my way," the king muttered, looking distant. "I don't even know what to do next. I'm a weak ruler."

"You haven't lost your strength," Pisces said, resting near him on his dais. She arranged her long limbs delicately - like all the avatars, her true form was a humanoid, but she could change to a more powerful animalistic form for battle.

"How could we fail?" The king placed his head in his hands, mournfully. "The civil war in the dragons is affecting all three realms, and spilling over into other dimensions. We need a decisive ending, else all will perish."

"I'll hold us up," Pisces whispered, and embraced her king. "We will keep the sky." She swept her arm wide, embracing the Celestial Kingdom, as yet untouched by the dragon wars on Earthland. Their realm and their home was the final target of the dragon rebellion – and why they had to defend Earthland at all costs.

She touched her lover's brow, tracing the whiskery hair. "We could count all the stars…. The jewels of your crown." She sighed. "But even if I held them in my arms, there would be too many. We will win, my love."

"I hope you're right," he said, and glanced down to her stomach, which had the barest bulge. Their son would soon be born – years in the human world, but a blink of an eye in Celestial time – and the king and Pisces both wanted the war to be over long before then.

"Don't be afraid." She thumped her chest to show that, despite being gravid, she was still good old Pisces – one of the strongest of the Celestial warriors. Only his general and the leader of the army, Loki, the one who would later on be known as Leo, was stronger. And once her child was born, with the strength of the Celestial King himself, she too would rival the strongest spirit.

"I will be inside of you," he said, and touched her cheek. "Always. Your heart is my sound."

Pisces smiled. Even for someone who was just a solider, it appears she had given him comfort after all.

She stood up and stretched. "We have word that the faction led by Acknowlogia has recently lost several dragons to a mysterious portal… it appears that humans in the future have re-opened the Eclipse Gate. I pity those who have wrangled with time who will now need to face those dragons, but all the same I am grateful that a few dragons are out of our hair."

"Please keep me informed. And… take care of yourself."

He looked so sad, that he would once again have to send his own lover to battle while he stayed safely in the Celestial Realm. Were he to fall, all would be lost. It was too dangerous for him. She kissed him on the lips, a reminder of the bond that they shared which would someday manifest as a new spirit. A part of her, a part of them together.

"Remember, my dear, in the human game of chess… the queen is always the strongest piece on the table."

She left his throne room, flicking her black hair over her shoulder with a swish.

She would protect her king and her child _and _Earthland, no matter what the cost.

She would hold them up, all of them, captured by the light of the Celestial Realm.


	23. Erza and Jellal: Clarity

**Some more Jella x Erza today – a fairly new track (November last year) from Zedd featuring Foxes called _Clarity. _(I like the Andrew Rayel remix.)**

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><p>At some point, Erza realized she was going to have to go back to the Tower of Heaven.<p>

It had been abandoned ever since the disaster last year – no, eight years before, she corrected herself - but she had been pretty unconscious when Natsu had dragged her out of there, and she had never quite gotten the closure she'd needed. The business with the dragons at the Grand Magic Games, her acceptance of her feelings for the wonderful man that Jellal had become while the Tenrou Island crew were trapped in time, and her desire to finally return to a normal life had made her realized that she _needed_ this.

Erza went back on the anniversary of the fall of the Tower.

She stepped out of the sailing vessel she'd chartered, onto a smaller rowboat that the captain and his sole crew member had prepared for her.

"I'll be back in a few hours," she told them with a grateful nod.

"Take your time, miss," the captain said, his eyes large as he viewed the hulking ruins of the Tower of Heaven. "Although what business you have in such an accursed place is beyond me."

The water was cold, the waves that splashed over the boat almost freezing. But the mighty ocean could never freeze, just as the world would never fully stop and her life would go on until it ended.

The past came back to life before her eyes. As a child, watching Rob die to save her life. Then losing Jellal to the demons that possessed him (well, one demon that she now knew by the name of Ultear.) Losing Simon had hurt her the most. Rob had taught her that magic was strongest when it was used to protect friends… and that one time, just once, she had failed.

She bit back a wave of regret and fear, glad she was alone so no one saw her face fall in that brief instant. She was Erza Scarlett, the Titania. No man or island should be able to make her flinch.

The pain would never go away over the lives she'd lost. As to the lives she'd protected… it was worth it every time she risked her own life to save another. That was what Lucy called the source of One Magic – love. Love for the self, love for your friends, love for the world.

Deep breath. Square the shoulders.

She stilled the small boat before she crashed into a rock that loomed up faster than she expected, neatly avoiding it and beaching the raft. Her keen eyes surveyed the beach, and the hair on her arms prickled when she realized she wasn't alone. A set of foot prints crisscrossed the beach in front of her, fresh.

Erza touched the sword at her side briefly. Who else could possibly want to come to this uninhabited, miserable little island? The ruins were terrifying and useless – the _lacrima_ was all gone, and what was left was merely a charred stony husk of the Tower's base.

Curious, she followed one of the sets of prints around the perimeter of the island. She kept glancing at the ruins, looking for anyone who may have traveled through the base of the build from the other side.

It wasn't until she saw a familiar blue speck in the distance that she realized just who else might want some closure here.

He came into view as she approached him as noiselessly as she could. He was crouched on the beach, casually. In front of him was a small metal vase set into a marble slab – the kind normally used inside a graveyard to hold flowers. The vase _did_ hold flowers – cheerful blue bells. They looked fresh, although the marble slab had a settled appearance.

At some point in the last few years, Jellal had built Simon a simple memorial.

Erza felt a lump in her throat as she approached Jellal from behind, and took it as a sign to clear her throat to announce her presence.

Jellal jumped up, with the instincts of any wanted criminal, then relaxed visibly when he saw who it was.

He smiled at her. Gently. She felt her heart cracking open again, as it always did when she thought about how desperately she loved him.

He was the piece of her that she wished she didn't need. She would chase him relentlessly if it wasn't futile. She would fight by his side, and do anything he asked of her, and yet it hurt so much just to be near him that she didn't know why. Except it hurt more to be away from him.

"I come here every year, on the anniversary," he said, tilting his head toward the tower.

"I sure missed a lot, huh," she said, and also crouched down next to him to look at Simon's grave marker. She doubted that Jellal had actually found a body to bury, but even just a marker was more thought than she had given.

She said a brief prayer for her fallen friend, then stood up to face Jellal.

The air crackled with tension. Things were still so unresolved from the Games and the dragon disaster. She had hoped to find some resolution here, in this island of the past. Maybe she would still find it, although not in the manner she had intended.

She reached up to cup his cheek, causing his eyes to widen at the gesture.

"If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?" she murmured, brushing her thumb just below his eye.

"Erza," he breathed, both and endearment and warning.

"If my still loving you after all we've been through is insanity, why are you my clarity?" she asked again, and dropped her hand. "And don't give me that look."

"What look?"

"That 'I don't deserve your love' look you always give me during these moments," she said with a smile. "Believe me, not being madly in love with you would make my life a lot less complicated." Her mouth quirked a bit. "Is your fiancé here too?"

His face reddened – he knew she knew he was lying about that, and she_ knew_ that he knew she knew. She stifled a giggle. She played along with his failed defensive tactic to let him have some dignity, but one of these days she was going to end the charade. Or perhaps he would first, when he was ready.

"No," he said finally.

"Good, then she won't get mad at me for this." Erza reached up and kissed him. She kept it brief and chaste, although she really wanted to drag him back on the boat to her apartment at Fairy Hills and do many other things to him. They weren't ready for that, though, not mentally or emotionally.

"You make me forget all common sense sometimes," Jellal complained when she broke the kiss.

"There's nothing common about us," she replied, and gave him a firm hug. "Don't speak as I tried to leave, 'cause we both know what we'll choose," she whispered to him, before giving him one final squeeze.

She did leave then, following the tracks on the beach back to her rented rowboat. She glanced back to him only once, raising her hand in a friendly farewell. He waved in return. They'd always see each other again – it was just a matter of when.

She gave one last glance at the ruins of the Tower. She'd been her far less time than she had planned, but she'd gotten a lot more of a resolution than she'd expected.

Once of these days, that knucklehead would realize that they were destined to be together and stop fighting her… _them. _Until then, she'd have to content herself with these small moments.

_Why are you my clarity?_


	24. Natsu and Lucy: Together We Are

**I'm tired of "Lucy is weak and gets kicked off the team" fics. It's completely out of character for everyone involved. **_**Arty ft. Chris James – Together We Are**_** explains why.**

"Oh Natsu," Lucy said, tears running down her face. "Sometimes I just feel so weak." She collapsed on the ground. "I'm useless."

They were alone for the moment, and Natsu could tell she'd been holding it in since they'd finished fighting. Gray and Erza had run off to collect their reward, leaving Natsu to console Lucy.

It broke his heart to see her crying over something that wasn't really her fault. The mission had taken them to an old temple, where there had been some sort of psionic field that blocked the gates to the Celestial world. Lucy had been unable to do much of anything, which must have been really frustrating to her. She had, however, used her whip to open a lever that was too high up for any of them to reach, and helped solve a puzzle to open a secret door in the ruins much more quickly than Natsu, Erza, or Gray would have been able to do on their own.

"It happens on missions sometimes," Natsu said, and held out his hand to her. She took it, gratefully, and tried to quell her crying. "You should see Erza when she discovers she doesn't have an appropriate outfit for something."

Lucy stood up, but her legs were wobbly and she half tripped, half stumbled straight into Natsu's arms.

They stood there for a moment, not daring to breath or move. Things had been really awkward since the Grand Magic Games, when he'd gotten an eyeful of her whole body and a double handful of her soft breasts.

"Lucy," Natsu said, and pulled her into a full on hug. She relaxed against him. "It's _you_ I see, and _you_ I believe in. Lucy Heartphilia. Whether she's got her Celestial keys or not, she's brave and smart and kind. And together we are…" he paused here, "stronger."

"Stronger?" she sniffled.

"Together," he repeated. "I can fight stronger with you by my side. And you can be braver, with the rest of us around. We all are stronger together."

What he didn't tell her was that he was madly in love with the way she complemented him – well, all of them. Summoners weren't the strongest mages alone. Like their support team in Wendy, their individual strength was not the point. They provided a lot of value to the team as a whole. Lucy did too, even without her avatars. They were part of her, but she was strong even without them.

"I wonder if I should try to learn a different kind of magic, as a backup," she said, her tears now mostly subsided.

"Just don't try that crazy demon stuff that Angel did," Natsu warned, and gently pried her away. Not that he minded being in such close contact with her, but he could hear Erza and Gray approaching. One of these days he'd work up the courage to try to get himself out of the friend zone. Not today, it seemed. She needed a friend really badly right now.

"Never think you're weak, Lucy, 'cause together we are strong."


	25. Gajeel and Levy: Perfect Love

**Brief little vignette for Gajeel and Levy. **_**Perfect Love**_** by Aly & Fila with Roger Shah, featuring Adrina Thorpe. This one has been bouncing around my head for a year, but I've finally decided the scene where it needed to go.**

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><p>"When did you stop being afraid of me, Shorty?"<p>

The question came out of nowhere and caught Levy off guard. She and Gajeel were sitting next to each other on the bay window of the Magnolia Library – she with book in hand, and Gajeel just there because she was. She was using him as a backrest, her knees tucked under her chin.

She thought seriously about the question.

"Well?"

How could she explain to him that a perfect love cast away all her fears? Once she'd realized the truth – that she was madly in love with him – it had set her free from all the anxiety she'd experienced around him at first. He had done horribly things to her, but he'd had horrible things done to him as well. All he'd needed was someone to trust him for once in his life.

"I'm not who I was before," she finally decided. "I've changed since I met you. You changed, too."

They were both now swimming deep in a sea of love.

He grunted in assent, and she continued.

"Love changes you, whether you realize it or not." She began chanting a poem she'd memorized from a holy book as a child. "Love's the way, love's the truth, love is alive." She took a deep breath. "Love is here, love's not dead, love is the light."

She expected a comment about "mushy stuff" but what she got instead was Gajeel turning to his side and pulling her closer.

"You didn't just think that up, did you," he accused her teasingly, speaking beside her ear.

"No," she said, her heart pounding. He _knew_ her ears were really sensitive. "But I always wanted to believe the words. When I met you, I knew they were true."

He sniffed her hair, and she sank back into him.

His love was all around, like the sunlight falling down onto them through the window. Like the wind. She breathed deeply, catching the smell of him – leather, rust, and a surprising note of aloe from the hair gel he used to get his massive mane under control these days.

"I'm alive," she murmured, "in you."

What she left unsaid was that she knew that she was his own light, and she would shine in to the darkest parts of his soul until there were no more shadows left.

"So you stopped being scared when you fell in love with me? Not before?"

She smiled to herself. "I guess so. What about you? When did you stop being afraid of me?"

He fumbled. "I ain't – that is, I was never…"

"You were."

"I guess when I realized you didn't hate my guts… and maybe I had a chance." He coughed into his fist. Now she'd embarrassed him.

Levy snapped the book shut. Being with Gajeel in the library was fun, but after such an emotional confession from both of them, she wanted to go someplace more private.

She squirmed around in his arms until she was facing him, her eyes heavy lidded.

"Let's go back to your place," she whispered.

His eyebrows shot up, but he was never one to turn down her advances. In one smooth motion he sat himself upright, set her down on the floor, and then stood up himself. He held her hand as he dragged her out of the room.

She giggled. Being madly in love with someone not only let you cast away your fears… it let you cherish the other person all the more.

_When the light shines, _

_Let the light shine in 'til the morning._


End file.
